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GECKO

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 547 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GECKO ,1 the See also:

common name applied to all the See also:species of the Geckones, one of the three sub-orders of the Lacertilia. The geckoes are small creatures, seldom exceeding 8 in. in length including the tail. With the See also:head considerably flattened, the See also:body See also:short and thick, the legs not high enough to prevent the body dragging somewhat on the ground,the eyes large and almost destitute of eyelids, and the tail short and in some cases nearly as thick as the body, the geckoes altogether lack the litheness and See also:grace characteristic of most lizards. Their See also:colours also are dull, See also:Leaf-tailed Gecko (Gymnodactylus platurus) of See also:Australia. and to the weird and forbidding aspect thus produced the See also:general See also:prejudice against those creatures in the countries where they occur, which has led to their being classed with toads and See also:snakes, is no doubt to be attributed. Their bite was supposed to be venomous, and their saliva to produce painful cutaneous eruptions; even their See also:touch was thought sufficient to convey a dangerous taint. It is needless to say that in this instance the popular mind was misled by appearances. The geckoes are not only harmless, but are exceedingly useful creatures, feeding on See also:insects, which, owing to the See also:great width of their See also:oesophagus, they are enabled to See also:swallow whole, and in pursuit of which they do not hesitate to enter human dwellings, where they are often killed on ' The See also:Malay name ge-koq imitates the See also:animal's cry. suspicion. The structure of the toes in these lizards forms one of their most characteristic anatomical features. Most geckoes have adhesive digits and toes, by means of which they are enabled not only to climb absolutely smooth and See also:vertical surfaces, for instance a window-See also:pane, but to run along a See also:white- washed See also:ceiling, back downwards. The See also:adhesion is not produced by sticky See also:matter but by numerous transverse lamellae, each of which is further beset with tiny See also:hair-like excrescences.

The arrangement of the lamellae and pads differs much in the various genera and is used for classificactory purposes. Those which live on sandy ground have narrow digits without the adhesive apparatus. Most species have See also:

sharp, curved claws, often retractile between some of the lamellae or into a See also:special sheath. The tail is very brittle and can be quickly regener- ated; it varies much in See also:size and shape; the most extra-See also:ordinary is that of the leaf- tailed gecko. Ptychozoon homalocephalon of the Malay countries has membranous ex- pansions on the sides of the head, body, limbs and tail, which look like parachutes, but more probably they aid in conceal- See also:ing the creature when it is closely pressed to the similarly coloured bark of a See also:tree. Most geckoes are dull coloured, yellow to See also:brown, and they soon See also:change See also:colour from lighter to dark tints. They are insectivorous and chiefly nocturnal, but are fond of basking in the See also:sun, motionless on the bark of a tree, or on a See also:rock the colour of which is then imitated to a nicety. Some species are more or less transparent. Geckoes, of which about 270 species are known, subdivided into about 50 genera, are See also:cosmopolitan within the warmer zones, including New See also:Zealand, and even the remotest volcanic islands. This wide See also:distribution is due partly to the great See also:age of the suborder (although fossils are unknown), partly to their being able to exist for several months without See also:food so that, concealed in hollow trunks of trees, they may See also:float about for a very See also:long See also:time. See also:Ships, also, See also:act as distributors. In See also:south See also:Europe occur only Hemidactylus turcicus, Tarentola mauritanica (Platydactylus facetanus) and Phyllodactylus europaeus.

End of Article: GECKO

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