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Squamata · GekkonidaeEntry 8,384 of 21,572
voracious Dtella, Gehyra vorax

Reptilia · Squamata

Gehyra voraxGirard, 1858

voracious Dtella

Photograph by The original uploader was Dawson at English Wikipedia., CC BY-SA, via Wikimedia Commons

A tree-dwelling, active by day or night, plant-eating gecko from the Australo-Pacific region, reaching 188 mm snout to vent.

Also called Voracious four-clawed gecko.

ReptiliaSquamataGekkonidaeGehyra

Grows to
188mm
greatest recorded
Eats
Herbivorous
Active
Cathemeral
Lives
Arboreal
Body length across Gekkonidae

Longer than 100% of all geckos anyone has measured.

100% of 1,580 species are smaller0% larger
23 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest220 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 23 to 220 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

33 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
Near Threatened
Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
2013
Red List criteria
A2c

The animal itself

Limbs
Four legs
Venomous
No
Fangs
None

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
188mm7.5 in

max 188 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)

Length snout to vent · adult female mean
134mm5.25 in
Largest female · snout to vent
134mm5.25 in

snout-vent length; the source column mixes this with straight carapace length

Hatchling length · snout to vent
35mm1.5 in
Largest juvenile · snout to vent
35mm1.5 in
Body mass · greatestcomputed
108.9g3.8 oz

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

How it lives

Diet
Herbivorous

fruits included in diet (Bauer and Sadlier 2000), presumably omnivore (Zug 1991, Morrison 2003, Zug 2013) / mostly plants (Daza et al. 2009) / fruit (Ineich 2011)

Active
Cathemeral

(Zug 1991) / mostly nocturnal (Morrison 2003) / nocturnal (Bauer and Russell 1992)

Where it lives
Arboreal

e.g., Bauer and Russell 1992

Habitat
Forest
Biome
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Region
Australo-Pacific
Mainland or island
Found only on islands
Highest it lives · above sea level
500m
Range size
17,009km²

Breeding

Reproduction
Oviparous
Average clutch
2eggs
Eggs or young per clutch
1–2eggs
Mean clutch
2eggs

Naming and history

Suborder
Sauria
Infraorder
Gekkota
Subspecies
No
Described by
Girard
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
No
Described in
1858
Type locality
Fiji

Keeping one

2 ft 6 in × 18.5 in × 2 ft 6 in(75 × 47 × 75 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 7.5 in (188 mm), at 4 × 2.5 × 4 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.

No preferred body temperature has been recorded for voracious Dtella. Rather than repeat a number from a care sheet, this page leaves it out.

Feeding

Prey size does not apply. A herbivore's diet is judged on fibre, on the ratio of calcium to phosphorus, and on avoiding plants high in oxalates.

The animal does not take prey items. This is established practice, not a measurement.

13kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 109 g, the heaviest recorded for voracious Dtella — 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 · a typical adult
  • Body mass · adult female, mean
  • Body mass at hatching
  • Longest recorded life
  • Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
  • Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
  • Eats arthropods
  • Eats vertebrates
  • Eats plant matter
  • How it hunts
  • How the young develop
  • Gestation or incubation
  • Clutches in a year
  • Clutches a year · fewest
  • Clutches a year · most
  • First breeds from · youngest recorded
  • First breeds by · oldest recorded
  • 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
  • Sex decided by
  • Population trend
  • Active season · shortest recorded
  • Active season · longest recorded
  • Density · lowest recorded
  • Density · highest recorded
  • Home range · largest recorded
  • Active in
  • Lowest it lives · above sea level

Others in Gekkonidae

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). Gehyra vorax. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/gehyra-vorax

@misc{gehyra_vorax_2026,
  title  = {Gehyra vorax},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/gehyra-vorax}
}

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.