All Angles Creatures
Squamata · DiplodactylidaeEntry 5,147 of 21,572
Crested Gecko, Correlophus ciliatus

Reptilia · Squamata

Correlophus ciliatusGuichenot, 1866

Crested Gecko

Photograph by Lennart Hudel, CC BY, via Wikimedia Commons

A tree-dwelling, nocturnal, omnivorous gecko from the Australo-Pacific region, reaching 130 mm snout to vent.

Also called Eyelash Gecko.

Once published as Rhacodactylus ciliatus — those names reach this page.

Reptilia › Squamata › Diplodactylidae › Correlophus

Grows to
130mm
greatest recorded
Eats
Omnivorous
Active
Nocturnal
Lives up to
25years
Body length across Diplodactylidae

Longer than 95% of all species in Diplodactylidae anyone has measured.

95% of 197 species are smaller5% larger
28.8 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest370 mm

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 28.8 to 370 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

41 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
Vulnerable
Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
2017
Population trend
Decreasing
Red List criteria
B1ab(iii,v)+2ab(iii,v)

The animal itself

Limbs
Four legs
Venomous
No
Fangs
None
Longest recorded life
25years

Jepson 2014: animals brought from nature in 1994 are still alive (2014), Sameit 2018: adult animals brought from nature in 1994 are still alive and breeding (2018)

Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured
26.1°C

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
130mm5 in

max 130 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)

Length snout to vent · adult female mean
103mm4 in
Hatchling length · snout to vent
40mm1.5 in
Largest juvenile · snout to vent
40mm1.5 in
Body mass · greatestcomputed
45.53g1.6 oz

computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed

Body mass at hatchingmeasured
1.61g0.06 oz

How it lives

Diet
Omnivorous

Omnivorous - mostly taking Arthropods, but also fruit (Bauer and Sadlier 2000, Daza et al. 2009) / primarily Herbivorous (Badger 2003) / fruit, insects and sometimes smaller lizards (Jepson 2014)

How it hunts
Sit and wait

Banfi et al. 2023

Active
Nocturnal

e.g., Jepson 2014, Sanchez et al. 2015, Hudel et al. 2020

Where it lives
Arboreal

e.g., Hudel et al. 2020; semi arboreal, Jepson 2014

Habitat
Forest
Biome
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Active season · months of the year
12months
Region
Australo-Pacific
Mainland or island
Found only on islands
Highest it lives · above sea level
900m

<10 (Sanchez et al. 2015)

Range size
2530km²

Breeding

Reproduction
Oviparous
Sex decided by
Genes, ZW/ZZ
Average clutch
2eggs
Eggs or young per clutch
1–2eggs

2, occasionally one (Black 2005, Jepson 2014), one can occur in young females (Jepson 2014)

Mean clutch
2eggs
Clutches a year
12per year
First breeds at
12months

Naming and history

Suborder
Sauria
Infraorder
Gekkota
Subspecies
No
Described by
Guichenot
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
No
Described in
1866
Type locality
New Caledonia

Keeping one

Crested Gecko is assessed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Species at risk in the wild are often covered by CITES and by national law, which decide what may be bought, sold, moved across a border or kept at all — and captive-bred and wild-caught animals are usually treated differently. Check the rules where you are before acquiring one. Nothing below is a judgement about keeping this species; it is what a published welfare standard says about space, and what the animal itself was measured doing.

20.5 in × 13 in × 20.5 in(52 × 33 × 52 cm)

Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.

The standard sizes climbing species at 4 × 2.5 × 4 times snout-vent length.

Lives in vegetation, so height and climbing structure matter more than floor space.

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 5 in (130 mm), at 4 × 2.5 × 4 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.

In a laboratory thermal gradient this species settled at 79 °F (26.1 °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.

6kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 46 g, the heaviest recorded for Crested 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.

Morphs

0 with peer-reviewed genetics behind them, 9 resting on breeder consensus. Most references present both with the same confidence.

What each pairing produces → · Two genes at once →

  • Axanthicbreeder consensus

    Yellow pigment absent, leaving greys, blacks and whites.

  • Cappuccinobreeder consensus

    Heavy dark dorsal colour with a distinctive soft pattern.

  • Dalmatianbreeder consensus

    Dark spots scattered across the body, increasing with age.

  • Empty Backbreeder consensus

    A clean, unmarked dorsal field between the crests.

  • Flamebreeder consensus

    A contrasting dorsal field with cleaner sides.

  • Harlequinbreeder consensus

    Bold patterning extending well down the sides and onto the legs.

  • Lilly Whitebreeder consensus

    Large areas of white across the back and sides, increasing with age.

    Worth knowing. Two copies produce an almost entirely white animal, widely reported as failing to thrive and not surviving long. Pairing two Lilly Whites is expected to produce a quarter of the clutch in that form.

  • Pinstripebreeder consensus

    Raised cresting scales forming a continuous line along each side of the back.

  • Tigerbreeder consensus

    Vertical banding down the sides.

Other inherited traits

Inherited characteristics and conditions recorded for this species. These are not morphs — nobody breeds for them.

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 female · snout to vent
  • — 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 · a typical adult
  • — Body mass · adult female, mean
  • — Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
  • — Eats arthropods
  • — Eats vertebrates
  • — Eats plant matter
  • — How the young develop
  • — Gestation or incubation
  • — Clutches in a year
  • — 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
  • — Body temp in the wild · lowest mean recorded
  • — Body temp in the wild · highest mean recorded
  • — Colour on the back
  • — Pattern on the back
  • — Pupil
  • — Density · lowest recorded
  • — Density · highest recorded
  • — Home range · largest recorded
  • — Active in
  • — Lowest it lives · above sea level

Others in Diplodactylidae

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). Correlophus ciliatus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/correlophus-ciliatus

@misc{correlophus_ciliatus_2026,
  title  = {Correlophus ciliatus},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/correlophus-ciliatus}
}

Sources

  1. Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
  2. Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
  3. Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.