Reptilia · Squamata
Hemitheconyx caudicinctusDuméril, 1851
Fat-tail Gecko
Photograph by Wikimedia Commons contributor, CC BY-SA, via Wikimedia Commons
A ground-dwelling, nocturnal, meat-eating gecko from the Afrotropic region, reaching 160 mm snout to vent.
Reptilia › Squamata › Eublepharidae › Hemitheconyx
- Grows to
- 160mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives up to
- 16.2years
Longer than 91% 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
39 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
- 2019
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Longest recorded life
- 16.2years
- Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured
- 25.8°C
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 25.8°C
De Magalhaes & Costa 2009: 16.2, Werner et al. 1993: 8 years, 1 month; Slavens and Slavens 1999: 16 and 2 months; http://care-sheet.com/index/Hemitheconyx_caudicinctus: up to 15 years in captivity
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 160mm6.25 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 114.2mm4.5 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 114.2mm4.5 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 47.68mm2 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 47.7mm2 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 94.06g3.3 oz
- Body mass · a typical adult
- 39.17g1.4 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 1.95g0.07 oz
max 160 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
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Where it lives
- Terrestrial
- Habitat
- Savanna
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas & Shrublands
- Region
- Afrotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 200m
- Range size
- 1,712,974km²
Arthropods (see "Sources (general)")
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Sex decided by
- Temperature
- Average clutch
- 2eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 1–2eggs
- Mean clutch
- 2eggs
- First breeds at
- 12months
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Gekkota
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Duméril
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1851
- Type locality
- Senegal
Keeping one
2 ft 1 in × 2 ft 1 in × 15.5 in(64 × 64 × 40 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 6.25 in (160 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 78 °F (25.8 °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.
11kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 94 g, the heaviest recorded for Fat-tail 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, 5 resting on breeder consensus. Most references present both with the same confidence.
What each pairing produces → · Two genes at once →
- Amelanisticbreeder consensus
No black pigment, leaving tan and orange banding with pale eyes.
- Oreobreeder consensus
Heavily darkened, giving a charcoal animal with the banding still faintly held.
- Patternlessbreeder consensus
Banding lost, leaving an evenly coloured animal in tan or light brown.
- Stripedbreeder consensus
A pale line down the spine, its width and completeness varying between siblings and worked on by selection rather than carried by one gene.
- Whiteoutbreeder consensus
Dark pigment cleared from the head and the band edges, leaving a crisper, whiter animal. Two copies clear it further.
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
- — 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
- — 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
- — Population trend
- — Red List criteria
- — Active season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest recorded
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
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). Hemitheconyx caudicinctus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/hemitheconyx-caudicinctus
@misc{hemitheconyx_caudicinctus_2026,
title = {Hemitheconyx caudicinctus},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/hemitheconyx-caudicinctus}
}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.