Gecko

“ A species of gecko, a small, brilliantly coloured lizard, has the back of its tail armed with plates. These it has a habit of rubbing together, and by this means it produces a shrill, chirruping sound, which actually attracts crickets and grasshoppers toward the noise, so that they fall easy prey to this reptilian trapper. So in colour, sound, motion, and many other ways, animals act and react upon each other, a useful and necessary habit being perverted by an enemy, so that the death of the creature results. ”

“ The reptile was hanging from a rail on the bus, its form grotesquely large for a gecko and resembling a Silpakorn swamp monster in miniature, with a head like a four legged dinosaur, a tongue like a snake, and a body like an alligator, but a gecko it was nonetheless. "It's your destiny and you cannot escape it. Why look so frightened? ”

“ The gecko is almost entirely covered with large warts, more or less rising; the under part of the thigh is furnished with a row of tubercles raised and grooved. The feet are remarkable for oval scales, more or less hollowed in the middle, as large as the under surface of the toes themselves, and regularly disposed over one another, like slates on a roof. ”

“ The pursuit of their prey leads them near the habitations of man, whose dwelling always attracts certain kinds of insects, and they sometimes fall victims to their appearance, which frequently inspires terror, and often disgust. A Gecko, confident in his powers of flight, appears boldly to await his adversary, and his sudden disappearance at a nearer approach adds to the horror which his uncouth form inspires. The poor Geckos, too, have a bad name. ”

“ The digits are devoid of adhesive lamellae, but are granular inferiorly and strongly fringed laterally, an arrangement which is rare among Geckos, practically restricted to it with Ptenopus and Stenodactylus, which are likewise deserticolous. This is a beautiful illustration of adaptation to the surroundings. A Gecko, instead of climbing rocks and trees, has lost the climbing apparatus, or has transformed parts of it for running upon loose sand. The body is covered with imbricating, rather large and smooth scales. ”

“ The Geckos form a large sub-order of lizards. Their chief characteristic is their adhesive toes, which enable them to cling to and run on smoothest surfaces even when upside down. They do not like the hot sunlight and largely feed at twilight and at night. The Reef Gecko is found in Florida; the Warty Gecko, so called on account of the rows of large wart-like scales on its back and sides, inhabits Lower California; the Cape Gecko, Lower California; the Banded Gecko, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. ”

“ Towards the evening, or when the shadows become longer, the Geckos become lively. One after another appears on the surface, upon the tree, or at the entrance of the cave, and they all move about in their peculiar rushing jerks. Spiders, flies, mosquitoes, moths, form the principal diet, and the hunting goes on well into the night. Where a gecko has been seen once it is sure to reappear the next day at the same hour. Those which take up their abode inside a house become almost domesticated. ”

“ While there may be many reasons for the disparity between the necessary force to support body weight and the actual force available to geckos, wet toe pads may be one such factor. Many gecko species are native to tropical environments that experience high levels of atmospheric humidity and rainfall, likely wetting the surfaces a gecko moves across. ”

“ It is called here the geitje.”
“Well, it is rather remarkable, but we have in India a small lizard, called the gecko by the natives, which is said to be equally venomous. I presume it must be the same animal, and it is singular that the names should vary so little. I have never seen an instance of its poisonous powers, but I have seen a whole company of sepoys run out of their quarters because they have heard the animal make its usual cry in the thatch of the building; they say that it drops down upon people from the roof.” ”

“ Abstract When the adhesive toe pads of geckos become wet, they become ineffective in enabling geckos to stick to substrates. This result is puzzling given that many species of gecko are endemic to tropical environments where water covered surfaces are ubiquitous. We hypothesized that geckos can recover adhesive capabilities following exposure of their toe pads to water by walking on a dry surface, similar to the active self-cleaning of dirt particles. ”

“ Although the discovery of the self-drying mechanism and the observations we made have direct relevance for application to synthetics, the biological relevance of such a finding is also noteworthy. It is not entirely clear why adhesion is compromised when the toe pads of a gecko become wet but there are four possible explanations that may not be mutually exclusive. Generally, as expected, water layers between the setae and the substrate may cause the gecko to slip due to inadequate surface contact for van der Waals forces to occur. ”

“ GECKO,1 the common name applied to all the 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 head considerably flattened, the body 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 grace characteristic of most lizards. ”

“ While it is interesting to consider a gecko making behavioral choices about where to walk or run, for how long and in what direction, it is important to be reminded of the complexity of the system as a whole. Specifically, the impressive safety factor that geckos utilize will likely allow for negligible effects on overall adhesion when only one or two toes are wet and all others are dry. ”

“ From having been seen in collections in this state, it has been supposed to be a distinct species, and has been named the Turnip-tailed Gecko (Gecko rapicauda) . If the animal escape after having thrown off its tail, a new one will be reproduced in a short time, soon assuming the size and appearance of the old one, and leaving scarcely any trace of the misfortune, as we have proved in specimens in our own possession in captivity.
The Smooth Sheath-claw is a native of Jamaica, where it is very common. ”

“ The younger individuals are much darker than the larger and older animals, which are sometimes almost albinoes. In ordinary fly-catching habits, as they stick to the sides of a lamp, there is much similarity between this gecko and the little papehoo, or wall-lizard of China; but this is decidedly a larger and much more active animal, and often engages in a struggle with insects of very large size. ”

“ On being bitten by snake or stung by spider or scorpion, they chew some of this, immediately applying some of the pulp to the wound, and swallowing the remainder. Peculiarly enough, they dread in particular the small sand-gecko, which is so numerous that at sunset its cricket-like chirrup is heard everywhere, and which all scientists assert to be harmless. But the Hottentots believe it to be deadly, and quote numerous cases of men being found dead with a sand-gecko in their clothes or blankets. ”

“ In this study we tested a new hypothesis: gecko toe pads are self-drying. It is counterintuitive that geckos from tropical environments routinely encounter wet surfaces which make their toes dysfunctional [11] , yet have no way to regain their adhesion quickly. In response to this we found that active self-drying of toe pads occurs in Tokay geckos (Gekko gecko) , and that substrate wettability does not have an effect on time to recovery. ”

“ It seemed to be time now to begin Tommy's education, for I judged that, if he had been at home, he would ere then have been getting nightly lessons in the poacher's art. So I procured a small gecko, one of those grey house lizards, with pellets at the ends of their toes, which come down from the roof after the lamps are lit and gorge themselves on the foolish moths and plant bugs that come to the light. Securing it with a thin cord tied round its waist, I introduced it into Tommy's cage. He looked surprised, very much surprised. He raised himself to his full height. ”

“ As the gecko steps however, the hydrophilicity of the glass may help to pull water from the toe pads, recovering adhesion at a faster rate than a hydrophobic surface. To investigate both the effect of active self-drying (stepping) and substrate wettability on the recovery of shear adhesion after toe pads become wet, we tested geckos on a hydrophilic substrate (glass) and an intermediately wetting substrate (polymethylmethacrylate; PMMA) that we know geckos can adhere to underwater [12] . ”

“ The gecko grows as familiar with man as the domestic cat or dog,—entering human habitations freely, and rendering valuable service by the eagerness with which it devours flies, spiders, and other insect-plagues. ”

“ Just below the Sucking-fish is drawn a foot of the curious little lizard, the Gecko, so called from its peculiar cry. It is common in the West Indies, and haunts houses, traversing their walls just as flies run up panes of glass. It is enabled to perform this movement by means of the structure of the feet. As the reader may see by reference to the illustration, the toes are greatly widened and flattened. If the lower surface be examined, it will be found to be furnished with a number of plates very much resembling those of the sucking-fish, and performing the same office. ”

“ So while it is unlikely all the toes of a gecko get wet all at the same time, repeated wetting may be a significant problem for geckos. Thus active self-drying may be important not just for drying a newly wetted toe, but also to help remove water from the toe pad after repeated exposure. It is also important to note that ambient temperature and humidity can also play significant role in self-drying and this may be highly relevant to geckos living in the tropics where temperature and humidity levels are high and wet surfaces are more prevalent. ”

“ It was about as large as an ordinary full-grown toad, of a speckled grey colour, with rich brown markings, its head something like a lizard, with large thorny projections which extended all along the spine. The feet were very remarkable, each toe being furnished with a sucker which enabled the Gecko to walk with perfect ease in any position on a wall or pane of glass without losing its hold; and travellers say that it is a frequent inmate of Eastern houses, and may be seen catching flies as it creeps along walls and ceilings. ”

“ One adult male having a snout-vent length of 89 mm. was found beneath a log in the forest. Locally this gecko is known as escorpión; the natives believe it to be deadly poisonous. The use of the name escorpión seems to be restricted to lizards thought to be venomous. Nearly everywhere in México and Central America some species of lizard carries this appellation. In El Petén I heard the name used only for Coleonyx elegans and Thecadactylus rapicaudus; in the lowlands of Guerrero, México, the name is applied to geckos of the genus Phyllodactylus. ”

“ Lineages distributed across wide aridity gradients provide opportunities to examine the timing, frequency, and direction of transitions between arid and mesic regions. Here, we use molecular genetics and morphological data to investigate the systematics and biogeography of a nominal Australian gecko species (Diplodactylus conspicillatus sensu lato) with a wide distribution spanning most of the Australian Arid Zone (AAZ) and Monsoonal Tropics (AMT) . Our data support a minimum of seven genetically distinct and morphologically diagnosable taxa ”

“ To our knowledge there exists little evidence of self-drying in the natural world. Insects, including beetles, and tree frogs, use capillary adhesion and thus self-drying would be detrimental. For the dry adhesive system of the gecko however this appears to be imperative. But how can we relate these controlled laboratory tests to how geckos may utilize this unique property in their natural environments? First, we found that actively stepping significantly reduces the time it takes to regain maximum shear adhesion on either of the two substrates used. ”

“ Birds are scarce in the lowlands along the coast. The little blue Psittacus Taitianus frequents the top of the cocoa-palm; the Ardea sacra walks along the coral reefs; but it is seldom that a tropical bird is seen on the wing. A Gecko of the species Hemidactylus lives about old houses; a small lizard of the family of Scincoidea, with a copper-coloured body and a blue tail, and a striped Ablepharus, are met with frequently among the rocks. ”

“ A SMALL Lizard, lately brought home from the Isle of Formosa by Mr. Swinhoe, is decided to be a new species by Dr. Günther, of the British Museum. Mr. Swinhoe found the eggs of this Gecko, or Lizard, in holes of walls or among mortar rubbish. They are round, and usually lie several together, resembling eggs of ordinary Lizards. The young, when first hatched, keep much under stones in dark cellars, where they remain until they attain about two-thirds of the adult size, when they begin to appear in public to catch insects, but evincing great shyness of their seniors. ”

“ This sarcoptes prefers to live under the epidermis of the feet. Reptiles are not free from its attacks, for it is often seen on lizards and serpents. We have found a very curious one on the skin of a gecko from the south of France.
Many insects are always covered with certain species of acaridæ. Every entomologist knows that the body of the “watchman” beetle always has some of these, like little living pearls, which wander especially on the under side of the abdomen. ”