The African wall gecko, or fig tree gecko (''Tarentola ephippiata'') is a species of

gecko Geckos are small, mostly carnivorous lizards that have a wide distribution, found on every continent except Antarctica. Belonging to the infraorder Gekkota, geckos are found in warm climates throughout the world. They range from . Geckos ar ...

. It is found in northern Africa and parts of North America.

Description

The African Wall Gecko lives primarily in

Afrotropic The Afrotropical realm is one of Earth's eight biogeographic realms. It includes Africa south of the Sahara Desert, the majority of the Arabian Peninsula, the island of Madagascar, southern Iran and extreme southwestern Pakistan, and the island ...

regions, though it has been found in parts of North America. It is

nocturnal Nocturnality is an animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed sens ...

Discovery

It was first believed that Tarentola ephippiata and

Tarentola annularis ''Tarentola annularis'', also known as the white-spotted wall gecko or ringed wall gecko, is a species of gecko Geckos are small, mostly carnivorous lizards that have a wide distribution, found on every continent except Antarctica. Belong ...

(white-spotted wall gecko or ringed wall gecko), were geographic variants of the same species. A morphological analysis in 1961 showed that they were two distinct species, with differences in number of teeth and dorsal patterns. In 2019, the gecko was spotted in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

for the first time.

References

Tarentola Reptiles described in 1875 {{gecko-stub