Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a gecko that I can't identify. Snout-vent length is 3 inches, tail about 1.5 inches. It looks like a banded panther gecko (Pictus) at first glance, but the colors are darker (sandy grey with dark brown V-shaped bands). It moves in the same slow, terrestrial gecko fashion. It does not have moveable eyelids. The tail is somewhat prehensile. Although it has toe pads, it can't climb glass, and when it climbs it grabs the plants in its terrarium, rather than using its toe pads for support. Underbelly color is a kind tan-stained white/rufous brown color (I know, not very specific). This thing is mean and flighty, spending the day hiding under cork on the terrarium clor, where it digs a burrow in hardwood mulch. At night is prowls about eating crickets. The person who gave it to me thinks its a velvet gecko, and it does resemble a velvet, but the snout is too round. The gecko was originally sold as a African clwed gecko, but here is the funny thing: the shop received the animal as an African fat-tailed gecko, which it certainly is not.

I am 99% certain it is Platypholis (Homopholis) fasciata. Tanzanian banded/clawed velvet geckos...
Ashton

Yeah I agree. Homopholis faciata, part of the African velvet geckos. They live in baob trees and have been known to mass nest. Give it a hollow cork bark log and it will love you forever.