# Anyone know what this is?



## blunky (Jan 26, 2008)

I was in India in March this year and whilst having a shave at the barbers  I saw a bright yellow lizard run across the wall. It was absolutely gorgeous and just looked like a gecko of some sort to me. I was told by the barber in very poor english (which is still better than my hindi lol) that it was a poisonous lizard and if you touch it, it can kill you!! I've been curious ever since as I really do doubt his story. So does anyone have any idea what it is? and is it as posoinous as the barber made out or not? Here's a pic that will help hopefully. It's not the same lizard I saw as I couldn't get the camera in time but it is obviously the same species.










Bigger picture here:

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_9cPHGeVSShg/R9-UPTYTCtI/AAAAAAAAAeM/yPevV5ps3po/IMG_0058.JPG

Blunky


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## Ally (Mar 8, 2006)

No idea specific species, I can't get the bigger version to work. It's a gecko - maybe a day gecko?
It's not going to be something that will kill you if you touch it though! There are only a couple of venomous lizards (gila monsters, beaded lizards - no geckos that I know of) and it's their bite that you have to watch out for.


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## chamman (Nov 14, 2007)

Ally said:


> No idea specific species, I can't get the bigger version to work. It's a gecko - maybe a day gecko?
> It's not going to be something that will kill you if you touch it though! There are only a couple of venomous lizards (gila monsters, beaded lizards - no geckos that I know of) and it's their bite that you have to watch out for.


true it wont kill you as the 2 lizards you mentioned are the only 2 venomous lizards known. to me it looks like a day gecko maybe wrong though as the pick is very small and blurred!


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## Lucifus (Aug 30, 2007)

More like it may try to bite you. :Na_Na_Na_Na:

He probably didn't know the right words.


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## piglet79 (Jul 24, 2008)

Looks like a day Gecko - they have one at Paws for Thought

They are verrrry prettttttyyyyy:flrt:

Piglet79


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## Sephiroth (May 1, 2007)

yeah, looks like a day gecko, but there are loads of species of day gecko in india so it may be hard to pin down which one it is!

I lived in India for quite a while and the locals said that just about every lizard I found was deadly poisonous :lol2:


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## hysteria_uk (Nov 28, 2007)

it could well be poisonous but i doubt you were going to eat it. It wont be venomous tho


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## Matt Harris (Aug 21, 2007)

Sephiroth said:


> yeah, looks like a day gecko, but there are loads of species of day gecko in india so it may be hard to pin down which one it is!
> 
> I lived in India for quite a while and the locals said that just about every lizard I found was deadly poisonous :lol2:


Day geckos proper, as in Phelsuma sp, don't occur in mainland India I think; the nearest is in the Andaman and Nicobar islands.

Every place I've been to in S America, West Indies and West Africa, the locals believe that geckos, or their droppings, are venomous/poisonous.


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## Javeo (May 4, 2008)

We had these in our house in Pakistan, used to eat the moths and mosquitos. quite vocal and chase each other around the walls and ceiling. 
They sometimes fall into water tanks and drown causing illness and sometimes death so they get a reputation for being poisonous. Most herps and inverts etc are disliked out there. Shame, as I saw some stunning snakes and lizards there. (i was always considered wierd)


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## Marinam2 (Sep 4, 2007)

er its a house gecko.

hemidactlus frenatus. (sp)

Marina


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## sparkle (Mar 21, 2007)

house gecko or day gecko quite hard to see though


When i was in India they wer eoften seen on the stone walls of the wee restraunts or hotels..


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## blunky (Jan 26, 2008)

Thanks for all the replies, it's been bugging me about that. Glad I was right about it not being poisonous though :halo:. Quite interested about the "lizards dropping into water tanks and poisoning people hence all lizards are deadly". It seems a perfectly credible reason for their general attitude to reps in these areas.
I was quite disappointed I didn't spot more reps in India, admittedly I was in a touristy area but even out and about in the wilderness I only saw a few anoles in the hotel, a small "chameleon-esque"(technical term :whistling2 lizard on a wall, a small tree snake and this gecko. Admittedly there were a few there that I'm very glad I didn't meet lol.

Blunky


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## Marinam2 (Sep 4, 2007)

Its only poisonous if you intend to eat it other wise its venomous.

Marina


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## Ally (Mar 8, 2006)

Marinam2 said:


> er its a house gecko.
> 
> hemidactlus frenatus. (sp)
> 
> Marina


Shape looks right, but the photo makes it look bright green... Having another look it might just be the lighting in the pic doing that.


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## Fangio (Jun 2, 2007)

Looks like a day gecko to me also. House gecko's aren't bright green like that. Saying that it's a tiny pic with poor detail.


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## Javeo (May 4, 2008)

blunky said:


> Thanks for all the replies, it's been bugging me about that. Glad I was right about it not being poisonous though :halo:. Quite interested about the "lizards dropping into water tanks and poisoning people hence all lizards are deadly". It seems a perfectly credible reason for their general attitude to reps in these areas.
> I was quite disappointed I didn't spot more reps in India, admittedly I was in a touristy area but even out and about in the wilderness I only saw a few anoles in the hotel, a small "chameleon-esque"(technical term :whistling2 lizard on a wall, a small tree snake and this gecko. Admittedly there were a few there that I'm very glad I didn't meet lol.
> 
> Blunky


Its true! we had an underground water tank and a gecko I was trying to catch got into it through a tiny gap. My mother had it emptied and cleaned with bleach! 
I lived there for three years and we had a forest behind our house so I saw a multitude or reptiles, from huge pythons to some tiny little lizards.
On a side, I used to feed baby geckos to our chickens (its a plague in summer!)


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## Marinam2 (Sep 4, 2007)

There are two species of house gecko as well as variances in the localities. This includes colour. The flat tail is browner, the round tail can vary from a creamy colour to a very dark brown.

Marina


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## Fangio (Jun 2, 2007)

No offense intended Marina but I know what a house gecko looks like. I've sold enough of them when at the shops I worked at! Day gecko's too...

As Ally mentioned though the green could just be lighting etc. As the "bigger pic" doesn't work it's hard to be 100%. You may or may not be right like the rest of us LOL.


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## Marinam2 (Sep 4, 2007)

It doesnt look green to me at all. It looks like the cream i mentioned earlier.

I'm not offended by what you have said but in all honesty it loks nothing like a day gecko, plus it isnt showing day gecko behaviour. This is typical house gecko behaviour sitting up high in house eating moths and mozzies.

Marina


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## Fangio (Jun 2, 2007)

Marinam2 said:


> It doesnt look green to me at all. It looks like the cream i mentioned earlier.
> 
> I'm not offended by what you have said but in all honesty it loks nothing like a day gecko, plus it isnt showing day gecko behaviour. This is typical house gecko behaviour sitting up high in house eating moths and mozzies.
> 
> Marina


Good-o. Looks green to me......but then I am a bit colourblind (seriously).

Would be nice to see the bigger pic I guess....


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## Marinam2 (Sep 4, 2007)

S****** s******......see might look green to you again see what you think.

Marina


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## Ally (Mar 8, 2006)

chuckle chuckle

That looks brown, the photo at the beginning of this post looks like it's of a bright green gecko.


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## fuzzielady (May 19, 2008)

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_9cPHGeVSShg/R9-UPTYTCtI/AAAAAAAAAeM/yPevV5ps3po/IMG_0058.JPG

It loads on my pc. Not that the pic is much better, a bit blurry


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## Marinam2 (Sep 4, 2007)

Sorry still doesnt work for us

Marina


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## Fangio (Jun 2, 2007)

Marinam2 said:


> S****** s******......see might look green to you again see what you think.
> 
> Marina


Light brown: victory: It's only certain shades of colours I get confused with, I forget what colours. I see all the main ones fine and can't miss bright green:Na_Na_Na_Na:


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## Thrasops (Apr 15, 2008)

Hello all, just adding my tuppence's worth...

Whatever it is, it's certainly _not_ a _Phelsuma_ (an earlier post was correct in saying the nearest _Phelsuma_ to mainland India is found on the Andaman islands - _P. andamanense_). In any event, I think the lizard looks more yellowish than green (trick of the camera flash?).

The "day geckos" of India (_Cnemaspis_) are tiny, rather nondescript things quite comparable to the African _Lygodactylus_ (well, not the blue ones Ally :whistling2 in size and behaviour.

Actually, I think Marinam2 could be right, from the build it's most likely to be a _Hemidactylus_, _Gehyra_ or _Gekko_ species. I've seen some very yellow (and even orange) _Gehyra mutilata_, but again there are plenty of _Hemidactylus_ species that also may fit the bill. 

From that photo it's going to be next to impossible to identify to a species level. Gun to my head I would venture either a small _Gekko sp. _or _Hemidactylus flaviviridis_. (Actually it looks rather like _Gekko ulikovski_ but as far as I am aware that species is not found in India, more to the southeast Asia).

As to the question of it being venomous, not a chance. Pure fantasy - as has been said people all over the world fear what they don't understand. In Africa, chameleons are regarded as being only slightly less malevolent than Satan himself. The only venomous lizards have been described earlier in this thread (the Heloderms). I doubt most geckos are even poisonous, people eat Tokays (_Gekko gecko_) and other large geckos all the time in some parts of Asia (one of the reasons they are becoming harder to find in some places).

Francis


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## Caz (May 24, 2007)

I would have to agree that it is Hemidactylus flaviviridis.


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## blunky (Jan 26, 2008)

If it helps at all, the colour of it is the same colour as the smiley : victory: but with a greenish tinge.

Blunky


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## Caz (May 24, 2007)

Hemidactylus flaviviridis


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## Marinam2 (Sep 4, 2007)

Could be.

Marina


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## emmipez1989 (Jun 5, 2008)

looks like a fan footed gecko i saw in a shop, some1 may have said this before but i do not read latin.


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## fuzzielady (May 19, 2008)




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