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Squamata · DiplodactylidaeEntry 13,610 of 21,572
Starry Tree Gecko, Naultinus stellatus

Reptilia · Squamata

Naultinus stellatusHutton, 1872

Starry Tree Gecko

Photograph by Don Waddington, CC BY, via Wikimedia Commons

A tree-dwelling, day-active, omnivorous gecko from the Australo-Pacific region, reaching 80 mm snout to vent.

Also called Nelson green gecko.

Once published as Heteropholis stellatus — those names reach this page.

Reptilia › Squamata › Diplodactylidae › Naultinus

Grows to
80mm
greatest recorded
Eats
Omnivorous
Active
Diurnal
Lives up to
47years
Body length across Diplodactylidae

Longer than 72% of all species in Diplodactylidae anyone has measured.

72% of 197 species are smaller28% 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

37 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
2018
Population trend
Decreasing
Red List criteria
A2ae; B1ab(v)

The animal itself

Limbs
Four legs
Venomous
No
Fangs
None
Longest recorded life
47years

Werner et al. 1993: 10, Anastasiadis and Whitaker 1987: 10; Hare et al. 2007 (47 in captivity, also van Winkel et al. 2019)

Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
22.9°C73 °F

mean body temperature of active individuals in nature

Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
22.9°C

body temperature of active animals in nature

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
80mm3.25 in

max 80 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)

Length snout to vent · adult female mean
68.4mm2.75 in
Body mass · greatestcomputed
10.32g0.36 oz

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

How it lives

Diet
Omnivorous

Insects (e.g., Tingley et al. 2013) and fruit (Hare et al. 2016), primarily invertebrates but also berries, honeydew, nectar and flowers (van Winkel et al. 2019)

Active
Diurnal

e.g., Tingley et al. 2013, van Winkel et al. 2019: strongly heliothermic

Where it lives
Arboreal

e.g., Tingley et al. 2013, van Winkel et al. 2019

Habitat
Forest, Shrubland
Biome
Temperate Broadleaf & Mixed Forests
Region
Australo-Pacific
Mainland or island
Found only on islands
Elevation · above sea level
640m
Range size
11,292km²

Breeding

Reproduction
Viviparous
Average clutch
2eggs
Eggs or young per clutch
1–2eggs

2 eggs (Bauer, pers. comm., 25.10.2011), 1-2 (van Winkel et al. 2019)

Mean clutch
2eggs
Clutches in a year
1per year
Clutches a year
1per year
First breeds at
21months

Naming and history

Suborder
Sauria
Infraorder
Gekkota
Subspecies
No
Described by
Hutton
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
No
Described in
1872
Type locality
New Zealand

Keeping one

Starry Tree 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.

12.5 in × 7.75 in × 12.5 in(32 × 20 × 32 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 3.25 in (80 mm), at 4 × 2.5 × 4 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.

Active animals measured in the wild averaged 73 °F (22.9 °C).

Mean body temperature of active individuals measured in nature. 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.

2kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 10 g, the heaviest recorded for Starry Tree 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 female · snout to vent
  • — Largest male · snout to vent
  • — Largest female · shell length
  • — Largest male · shell length
  • — Hatchling length · snout to vent
  • — Hatchling length · nose to tail
  • — Largest juvenile · snout to vent
  • — Largest juvenile · shell length
  • — Egg length
  • — Egg width
  • — Body mass · a typical adult
  • — Body mass · adult female, mean
  • — Body mass at hatching
  • — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
  • — Eats arthropods
  • — Eats vertebrates
  • — Eats plant matter
  • — How it hunts
  • — 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
  • — Active season · shortest recorded
  • — Active season · longest recorded
  • — Density · lowest recorded
  • — Density · highest recorded
  • — Home range · largest recorded
  • — Active in

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). Naultinus stellatus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/naultinus-stellatus

@misc{naultinus_stellatus_2026,
  title  = {Naultinus stellatus},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/naultinus-stellatus}
}

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.