GECKOTID^. 



135 



[The Geckotidce are divided into many genera, according to the 

 construction of the toes. Dumeril refers to the comparative short- 

 ness 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 or lamellae, following or overlying each other in a 

 mode which varies in the different species. The nails are some- 

 times wanting on all the toes, but more frequently hooked, and 

 more or less retractile ; the toes sometimes 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 have been made the basis of their arrangement. 

 The Wall Gecko is supposed by Gresner to be the Lizard spoken 



Fig. 31. Platydactylus homaloceplialus. 



of by Aristophanes and Theophrastus, and the Tarentula of the 

 Italians : and there is little doubt that it was the 'Aa/caAa/3a>r/ae 

 of Aristotle and the ancient Greeks ; it clambered about their 

 walls catching spiders, on which it fed. Schneider has shown 

 it was the Stellio of Pliny. Linnaeus mentions three species, which 

 he places with his great genus Lacerta. Modern herpetologists, 

 following Cuvier and Dumeril, class them according to the struc- 

 ture under the several genera Ascalabotes, Platydactylus, Hemi- 



