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Reptilia    Squamata (part-other lizards)    Gekkonidae  
Sri Lankan Spotted House Gecko
Hemidactylus parvimaculatus (Deraniyagala, 1953)
heh-mee-DAK-til-us — par-vee-mak-yoo-LAY-tus
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SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 Native to Sri Lanka and southern India. It is established in Louisiana (Heckard et al., 2013, Reptiles & Amphibians 20: 192–196) and Texas (Davis and LaDuc, 2019, Herpetological Review 50: 102). (Krysko, Kenneth and Travis W. Taggart. 2025. Established Exotic Species. Pages 64-87 in Kirsten E. Nicholson (Editor), Scientific and Standard English Names of Amphibians and Reptiles of North America North of Mexico, with Comments Regarding Confidence in Our Understanding, 9th Edition. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Lawrence, Kansas. 87 pp.)

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Open icons indicate questionable records, including those with coordinate uncertainty greater than 10,000 m (approximately 6 miles). Click a marker to view metadata.
Occurrences:; 1,609 Total; 247 Museum; 1,362 Other

The locality database contains 8,094,832 records, and geographic and taxonomic errors exist. Logged-in, registered users may report a potential issue directly from the marker popup.
Shaded range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH. (Version: 2025.04.02.14.29.39)
Download map data (GeoJSON):
Polygon Range File Museum Literature Fossil Personal Observation Citizen Science

Province/State Distribution:

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named after its dorsal pattern.
Hemidactylus — Greek hemi- = “half” + daktylos = “finger” — “half-toed,” referring to the divided toe pads.
parvimaculatus — Latin parvus = “small” + maculatus = “spotted” — “small-spotted,” referring to its fine spotting pattern.

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


Selected References:
1953 Deraniyagala, P. E. P. A coloured atlas of some vertebrates from Ceylon. Vol. 2. Tetrapod Reptilia. Goverment Press, Colombo, Sri Lanka. 101pp.
2013 Heckard, David, Andrew Kathriner, and Aaron M. Bauer. First record of Hemidactylus parvimaculatus Deraniyagala, 1953 from the United States. Reptiles & Amphibians 20(4):192–196
2015 Borgardt, T. Geographic distribution. Hemidactylus parvimaculatus (Sri Lankan Spotted House Gecko). Herpetological Review 46:217
2016 Borgardt, T. Geographic distribution. Hemidactylus parvimaculatus (Sri Lankan Spotted House Gecko). Herpetological Review 47:258
2016 Glorioso, B. M. Geographic distribution. Hemidactylus parvimaculatus (Sri Lankan Spotted House Gecko). Herpetological Review 47:258
2016 Glorioso, B. M. Geographic distribution. Hemidactylus parvimaculatus (Sri Lankan Spotted House Gecko). Herpetological Review 47:81
2017 Erdmann, J. A. Geographic distribution. Hemidactylus parvimaculatus (Sri Lankan spotted house gecko). Herpetological Review 48:125
2018 Agarwal, Ishan, Varad B. Giri, and Aaron M. Bauer. On the Status of Cyrtodactylus malcolmsmithi (Constable, 1949). Breviora 557(1):1-11
2019 McClure, R. R. Geographic distribution. Hemidactylus parvimaculatus (Sri Lankan spotted house gecko). Herpetological Review 50:525
2019 Davis, Drew R. and Travis J. Laduc. Geographic Distribution: Hemidactylus aff. Parvimaculatus (Sri Lankan House Gecko). Herpetological Review 50(1):102
2019 Pellecchia, Christopher M., Brad M. Glorioso, and Robert W. Mendyk, Charles A. Collen, V. Christopher Montross, William Mcgighan, Kelsey Macedo, Brittany R. Maldonado, and Ian N. Morenc. Geographic Distribution: Hemidactylus parvimaculatus (Sri Lankan Spotted House Gecko). Herpetological Review 50(3):525-526
2019 Pellecchia, Christopher M. and Henry D. Benson. Geographic Distribution: Hemidactylus parvimaculatus (Sri Lankan Spotted House Gecko). Herpetological Review 50(3):526
2019 Agarwal, Ishan, Aaron M. Bauer, Varad B. Giri, and Akshay Khandekar. An expanded ND2 phylogeny of the brookii and prashadi groups with the description of three new Indian Hemidactylus Oken (Squamata: Gekkonidae). Zootaxa 4619:431–458
2025 Power, Jake G. and Drew R. Davis. Tail trifurcation in Hemidactylus aff. malcolmsmithi in southern Mississippi, USA. Herpetology Notes 18:677-678
2026 Genter, B. W. and Drew R. Davis. First records of Hemidactylus aff. malcolmsmithi (Squamata: Gekkonidae) in Florida and Alabama, USA. Reptiles & Amphibians In Press:In Press

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