GECKOTID&. 



125 



be attributed to them. There are about sixteen known species 

 of Geckos distributed universally over all tropical and some temperate 

 countries. 



The Geckotida are divided into many genera, according to the 

 construction of the toes. Dumeril refers to the comparative shortness 

 and general structure of the feet and conformation of the toes, which 

 he describes and figures in detail. The lower surface and the sole, 

 he states, are very dilatable, and furnished with small plates of 



Fig. 30. Wall Gecko. 



lamellae, following or overlying each other in a mode which varies in 

 the different species. The nails are sometimes wanting on all the 

 toes, but more frequently are present, when they are hooked, and 

 more or less retractile; the toes sometimes are united at the 

 base, and in Platydactylus the extremity of the toe expands into 

 a fan shape, as in the Tree Frogs. The membranous and soft 

 plates of the lower surface of the toes have various modifications 

 in different genera, which has been made the basis of their 

 arrangement. The Wall Gecko is supposed by Gesner to be the 

 Lizard spoken of by Aristophanes and Theophrastus, and the 

 Tarentula of the Italians ; and there is little doubt that it was 

 the 'Ao-KaAojS^TTjs of Aristotle and the ancient Greeks ; it clambered 



