Reptilia · Squamata
Phyllodactylus tuberculosusWiegmann, 1834
Yellowbelly Gecko
Photograph by Carlos Funes, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A nocturnal, meat-eating gecko from the Neotropic region, reaching 100 mm snout to vent.
Reptilia › Squamata › Phyllodactylidae › Phyllodactylus
- Grows to
- 100mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives up to
- 5years
Longer than 87% of all species in Phyllodactylidae 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 34 to 179 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
38 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
- 2012
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Longest recorded life
- 5years
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 22.7°C73 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 22.7°C
Slavens and Slavens 1999
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 100mm4 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 76.7mm3 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 76.7mm3 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 23mm0.9 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 23mm0.9 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 25.59g0.9 oz
e.g., Leenders 2019
snout-vent length; the source column mixes this with straight carapace length
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- How it hunts
- Sit and wait
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Where it lives
- Arboreal, saxicolous
- Habitat
- Forest
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests
- Active season · months of the year
- 9–12months
- Region
- Neotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 1700m
- Range size
- 340,766km²
Invertebrates / arthropods (Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016) / insectivore (Mora et al. 2020, Leenders 2019)
Mesquita et al. 2016
(e.g., Lemos-Espinal et al. 2013, Leenders 2019), mostly nocturnal, sometimes active in crevices by day and in mornings and afternoons (Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016), Strictly nocturnal (Mora et al. 2020)
Scansorial, saxicolous (Mesquita et al. 2016), Saxicolous (Mora et al. 2020), saxicolous and under bark (Leenders 2019)
182-800 (Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016), near sea level to 1160 (Leenders 2019)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 1.86eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 1–2eggs
- Mean clutch
- 1.71–2eggs
mean 2 (e.g., Mesquita et al. 2016, Leenders 2019), 2 and evidence of 3 (Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016), 2 (Zeas and Alvarado 2015)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Gekkota
- Subspecies
- Phyllodactylus tuberculosus ingeri DIXON 1964 Phyllodactylus tuberculosus tuberculosus WIEGMANN 1834
- Described by
- Wiegmann
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 1834
- Type locality
- Nicaragua
Keeping one
15.5 in × 15.5 in × 15.5 in(40 × 40 × 40 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes ground species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 and climbing species at 4 × 2.5 × 4 times snout-vent length.
Recorded both on the ground and climbing, so this is the larger of the two rules in every dimension.
Lives on rock, so stable hard surfaces and basking ledges suit it.
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 4 in (100 mm), at 4 × 4 × 4 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
Active animals measured in the wild averaged 73 °F (22.7 °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.
3kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 26 g, the heaviest recorded for Yellowbelly 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 · 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 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
- — Colour on the back
- — Pattern on the back
- — Pupil
- — Sex decided by
- — Red List criteria
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
Others in Phyllodactylidae
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). Phyllodactylus tuberculosus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/phyllodactylus-tuberculosus
@misc{phyllodactylus_tuberculosus_2026,
title = {Phyllodactylus tuberculosus},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/phyllodactylus-tuberculosus}
}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.