Reptilia · Squamata
Coleonyx variegatusBaird, 1858
Western Banded Gecko
Photograph by Branson Khounvichith, CC BY-SA, via iNaturalist
A ground-dwelling, nocturnal, meat-eating gecko from the Nearctic region, reaching 77 mm snout to vent.
Once published as Coleonyx variegata — those names reach this page.
Reptilia › Squamata › Eublepharidae › Coleonyx
- Grows to
- 77mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives up to
- 15.2years
Longer than only 5% of all eyelid geckos anyone has measured.
The bar is the rank itself: its length is the share of the family this animal exceeds. The chart below is the family’s real spread, on a logarithmic scale because body length here runs from 66.6 to 252 mm. The solid rule is this animal. Every bar is a count of real species, and nothing on this figure is estimated.
What is known
45 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.
Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.
Standing in the world
- Still living
- Extant
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- 2007
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Longest recorded life
- 15.2years
- Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured
- 28.6–32.8°C83–91 °F
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 26.1°C79 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 19.4–32.8°C67–91 °F
Carey and Judge 2000: 34.8 but cites Bowler 1977 and Snider and Bowler 1992 give 15.2, De Magalhaes & Costa 2009: 15.2 in captivity, Stebbins and McGinnis 2012: over 14 in aptivity, Werner et al. 1993 (14 years, 2 months), Slavens and Slavens 1999: 15 years, 2 months; Seufer et al. 2005 (14 1 month, 26 days and 15 and 2 months)
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 77mm3 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 60.8mm2.5 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 60.8mm2.5 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 27.5mm1 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 27.5mm1 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 8.7g0.31 oz
- Body mass · a typical adult
- 4.56g0.16 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 0.3g0.01 oz
max 77 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)
snout-vent length; the source column mixes this with straight carapace length
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
AnAge rates this record "acceptable"
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- How it hunts
- Mixed
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Where it lives
- Terrestrial
- Habitat
- Desert, Shrubland
- Biome
- Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
- Active season · months of the year
- 4–12months
- Region
- Nearctic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 2000m
- Range size
- 624,429km²
- Density
- 12–25per hectare
Arthropods (e.g., Stebbins and McGinnis 2012, Aguirre and Gatica 2010, Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016, Lemos-Espinal et al. 2015, Klauber 1945)/ omnivorous (Daza et al. 2009), insects (Grismer and Grismer 2022)
Sit and Wait (e.g., Mesquita et al. 2016) / active foraging (Grismer 2002, McElroy et al. 2008, Aguirre and Gatica 2010, Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016) / intermediate (Seufer et al. 2005)
(e.g., Stebbins and McGinnis 2018, Grismer and Grismer 2022, Klauber 1945), strictly nocturnal (Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016)
e.g., Mesquita et al. 2016, Klauber 1945
0-995 (Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016), 0-1520 (Stebbins and McGinnis 2018)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 1.97eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 1–2eggs
- Mean clutch
- 1.94–2eggs
- Clutches in a year
- 2per year
- Clutches a year
- 1–3per year
- First breeds at
- 10–12months
up to 2 (Lemm 2006, 1-2 for abbotti), 2 (Vitt 1977, Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016, Grismer and Grismer 2022), mean 1.94 (Mesquita et al. 2016), usually 2 (Stebbins and McGinnis 2018), 2 (Klauber 1945)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Gekkota
- Subspecies
- Coleonyx variegatus abbotti KLAUBER 1945 Coleonyx variegatus peninsularis KLAUBER 1945 Coleonyx variegatus sonoriensis KLAUBER 1945 Coleonyx variegatus variegatus (BAIRD 1858)
- Described by
- Baird
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1858
- Type locality
- USA
Keeping one
12 in × 12 in × 7.5 in(31 × 31 × 19 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes ground-dwelling species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times snout-vent length.
Mindestanforderungen an die Haltung von Reptilien (Sachverständigengutachten), German Federal Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture and Forestry, Animal Welfare Division, 10 January 1997. The standard states these floor areas are recommendations rather than binding limits.
From this animal’s own snout-vent length of 3 in (77 mm), at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
In a laboratory thermal gradient this species settled at 83–91 °F (28.6–32.8 °C).
Preferred body temperature, recorded in a laboratory gradient where the animal could choose freely. A measurement of the animal, not a setting for a thermostat.
Feeding
A prey item should be no wider than the space between the animal's eyes.
Widely used across reptile husbandry references. The stated reason is that the gap approximates the width of the throat, so wider prey is associated with impaction. This is established practice, not a measurement.
1kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 9 g, the heaviest recorded for Western Banded Gecko — so it is the top of the range, not a figure for a particular animal. Weigh yours and the number will be lower.
An upper estimate, not a feeding target, and not veterinary advice. The equation covers only what an animal burns staying alive, so a growing, gravid or recovering animal needs more — and it was measured on wild animals, which move far more than one in an enclosure. Body condition and a vet who knows the species are what a feeding decision should rest on. Where this comes from.
What nobody knows
These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.
- — Length snout to vent · adult male mean
- — Length snout to vent · adult mean
- — Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- — Female length · mean, nose to tail
- — Length nose to tail · adult male mean
- — Length nose to tail · adult mean
- — Largest male · snout to vent
- — Largest female · shell length
- — Largest male · shell length
- — Hatchling length · nose to tail
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · adult female, mean
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — Hatchling length · smallest recorded
- — Hatchling length · largest recorded
- — Age at first breeding · female
- — Mature from · youngest recorded
- — Mature by · oldest recorded
- — Size at maturity · smallest recorded
- — Size at maturity · largest recorded
- — Colour on the back
- — Pattern on the back
- — Pupil
- — Sex decided by
- — Red List criteria
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
Others in Eublepharidae
Take this data
Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.
This species as JSON · the whole dataset
Cite this page
The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Coleonyx variegatus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/coleonyx-variegatus
@misc{coleonyx_variegatus_2026,
title = {Coleonyx variegatus},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/coleonyx-variegatus}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
- Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.
- AnAge, Human Ageing Genomic Resources (de Magalhães et al.), used under CC BY 3.0.