552 



COLLEGE ZOOLOGY 



tected by a parchment-like shell. They feed largely on insects, 

 worms, and other small animals, but many are exclusively 

 vegetarian. The more than fifteen hundred and twenty- five 

 species of lizards are placed in two hundred and fifty-seven 

 genera and twenty families. Only eight of these families are 

 reviewed in the following paragraphs. 



Family GECKONIDJE. GECKOS (Fig. 453). This is a large 

 family containing forty-nine genera and about two hundred and 

 seventy species. Geckos inhabit all the warmer parts of the 



globe, are harm- 

 less, and usually 

 nocturnal. Many 

 of them have la- 

 mellae under the 

 toes (Fig. 453), 

 which enable them 

 to climb over trees, 

 rocks, walls, and 

 ceilings. Three 

 species occur in 

 North America 

 the reef geckos, 

 Splicer odactylus no- 

 tatus, of Florida, 

 Cuba, and the 



Bahamas, the tubercular gecko, Phyllodactylus tuberculosus, of 

 Lower California, and the cape gecko, P. unctus, also of Lower 

 California. 



The genus Sphcerodactylus contains, besides reef geckos, 

 seventeen species inhabiting Central and South America and 

 the West Indies. The reef gecko is about three inches long. 

 It has been reported from Key West, Florida. Phyllodactylus 

 is another large genus; its twenty- five species occur in tropical 

 South America, Africa, Australia, and islands in the Medi- 

 terranean. 



FIG. 453. Geckos, Eemidactylus turicus (left); 

 Tarentola mauritanica (right). (From Gadow.) 



