THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY


Reptilia    Squamata (part)    Gekkonidae  

Mutilating Gecko
Gehyra mutilata (Wiegmann, 1834)
jee-HIGH-rah — mue-teh-LAW-tuh

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
Native to southern Asia through the Pacific islands. It was introduced in California (Shaw, 1946, Herpetologica 3: 125–126; Kraus, 2009, Alien Reptiles and Amphibians: A Scientific Compendium and Analysis. SpringerVerlag, Heidelberg, Germany), Florida (Meshaka et al., 2004, The Exotic Amphibians and Reptiles of Florida. Krieger Publishing Company, Malabar, Florida), and is established in Hawai’i (Hunsaker and Breese, 1967, Pacific Science 21: 423–428; Kraus, 2009, op. cit.). The date of publication of the name Hemidactylus mutilatus (=Gehyra mutilata) is sometimes given as 1835 (e.g., Kluge, 1991, Smithsonian Herpetological Information Service (85): 1–35) presumably based on the idea that the species was first described by Wiegmann in Nova Acta Academiae Caesareae Leopoldino-Carolinae Naturae Curiosorum the date of which is either 1834 or 1835; however, the first valid use of the name is in Wiegmann (1834, Herpetologica Mexicana; see Bauer and Adler, 2001, Archives of Natural History, 28: 313–326 for a discussion of the dates of the relevant publications).
Page 77: The (Kraus, 2009) reference should be "Kraus, 2009, Alien Reptiles and Amphibians: A Scientific Compendium and Analysis. Springer, Dordrecht, The Netherlands".  — (06/11/2025)

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2025.03.31.14.33.18)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 1.15 MB

Province/State Distribution:
USA: Hawaii

First instance(s) of published English names:
No historic English names have been assigned to this taxon yet.

Taxon Links:

  
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
  
The Reptile Database
  
NatureServe
  
iNaturalist
  
GenBank
  
USGS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

Selected References:
1834 Wiegmann, Arend Friedrich August. Beiträge zur Zoologie, gesammelt auf einer Reise um die Erde, von Dr. F. J. F. Meyen, M. d. A. d. N.. Siebente Abhandlung. Amphibien. [Contributions to zoology, collected on a trip around the world, by Dr. F. J. F. Meyen, M. d. A. d. N.. Seventh treatise. Amphibians.] Nova acta physico-medica Academiae Caesareae Leopoldino-Carolinae Naturae Curiosorum [ New physico-medical proceedings of the Academia Caesarea Leopoldino-Carolina Naturae Curiosorum] 17(1):183-268
1967 Hunsaker, Don, II, and Paul Breese. Herpetofauna of the Hawaiian Islands. Pacific Science 21(July):423-428
2009 Kraus, Fred. Alien Reptiles and Amphibians: A Scientific Compendium and Analysis. Springer, Dordrecht, The Netherlands. 563pp.

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Sunday 15 June 2025 10:51 CT