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| The Variegated Gecko, Gonatodes ceciliae Donoso-Barros. 1965. Photographed in Trinidad's Arima Valley. Adult males reach 51 mm in body length, females are smaller. The Variegated Gecko is a forest dweller found in dense primary forest and secondary forest. Often the species is found in male-female pairs on tree trunks. It is endemic to Trinidad's Northern and Central Ranges as well as the nearby Peninsula de Paria, Venezuela. |
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| Orange-Spotted Gecko Gonatodes humeralis (Guichenot, 1855). Photographed in Trinidad's Arima Valley. Top: juvenile, second a female, bottom a male. It uses tree trunks in forests and forest edge habitats, it also occurs in tree plantations. The female deposits eggs in termite nests or cavities in bamboo or palm stems.It does not hesitate to use building walls as foraging sites. Males are more brightly colored than females. |
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| The Streak Lizard, Gonatodes humeralis(Lichtenstein, 1856). Photographed in Trinidad. Adult males reach 34 mm in body length, adult females about the same. Only males have the bright white stripe bordered by black. In females the pattern is much less distinct. This is a forest edge, and open woodland lizard. This lizard was most abundant in the coconut trash along the east coast of the island. A pair of eggs was found in a palm stump (lower photo). |
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| Cope's Dwarf Gecko, Sphaerodactylus copei Steindachner, 1867. Photograph of a captive raised animal, subspecies said to be S. c. cataplexis. Adult body length 41 mm. Endemic to the island of Hispaniola and restricted to the southeast portion of the island and its off shore satellites. Found in rock piles, on shrubby hillsides. Females deposit eggs at communal sites. |
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| Gosse's Dwarf Ocellated Gecko, Sphaerodactylus argus Gosse, 1850. Photograph of a captive raised animal. Adult body size to 33 mm. Distribution includes the following islands: Jamaica, Cuba, Bahama I., North Bimini I., New Providence I., Isla Grande de Maiz, Key West, Corn I. (Nicaragua). It uses limestone xeric scrub, beaches, pastures, woodlands, and other areas with ground cover. It also may be found in human habitations. |
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| Mole's Gecko, Sphaerodactylus molei (Boettger, 1894). Photographed in Trinidad's Arima Valley. Adults reach 28 mm in body length. A tiny gecko attracted to buildings, often is crevices in walls, or plant leaf axials. It ranges form coastal Venezuela, Trinidad, Tobago, and eastward to the Guianas. Males are very polymorphic in their color pattern. |
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| The Dwarf Geckos have been considered a New World subfamily of the Gekkonidae. Recently Gamble et a. (2008 Journal of Biogeography 35:88-104) found that this formerly New World group was monophyletic when the Old World genera Aristelliger, Euleptes, Quedenfeldtia, Pristurus, Saurodactylus and Teratoscincus were included with the New World Coleodactylus, Gonatodes, Lepidoblepharis, Pseudogonatodes, and Sphaerodactylus. The family is distributed in the Caribbean, Central, and South America, with a few species occurring in southern Florida and Africa, Asia, and Europe. Gamble et al. found the split between the sphaerodactyl geckos and their African relatives coincided with the Africa/South America split and the opening of the Atlantic Ocean. They are active during the day, or active at dusk and dawn; most climb; and the subfamily includes the world's smallest lizard, which may also be the world's smallest terrestrial vertebrate (some fish species are smaller). |
