Frank Colacicco wrote:
In Seufer's KEEPING AND BREEDING GECKOS, he refers to pretty much all tarentola as "wall geckos" Considering this to be one of the first books completely dedicated to geckos and their husbandry, Im assuming this is where the pet shop got "wall gecko".This book is one I used to carry with the caveat that it had a lot of mistakes and misinformation in it. Good photos though! The new (just came out, called "Professional Breeder's Series") or old Henkel and Schmidt "Geckoes" is the best general book I can think of for content. Barlett's "Geckos: a pet owner's manual" is the best bang for the buck general book there is. Cheap and a great source of info, as well as identification.
Most Hemi's are simply refered to as "house geckos". But you are right, common names are somtimes rediculous. Ive seen Cyrtodactylus peguensis marked "leopard gecko" more than once.That's a good one! ;) As an owner of C. peguensis, I can truly appreciate it! Maybe someone really farsighted came up with that one!
And god knows how many names there are for Stenodactylus, i think ive seen about 10. Im thinking wall gecko, moorish gecko and crocidile gecko are all Tarentola, but could be completely wrong. But then again ive seen Urocotyledon wolterstorfii called a "suprise gecko", or a "scansor-tailed gecko", and ive talked to many "experienced" geckophiles who dont even know what a Urocotyledon is.Add another one to the list. I don't know what it is either. ;)
So, there is such a staircase, in terms of keepers, and the level of experience, AND what we consider experience(is breeding Leopard geckos, and ONLY leopard geckos foI would hope we would only advise on species we have kept or refer. Even folks who have kept just a few types of geckos would know how to get information about care for different types of geckos.
r 12 years considered experienced?)
that it is next to impossible to hope that everyone can be on the same page in terms of names, sooo, i have no clue how to adress the problem, unless common names were completely eliminated.In my dreams! Common names often are a way for pet shops to jazz up people's desire to buy a particular species. If you did not know better, would you rather buy Gekko stentor or a Green Eyed Gecko? And then there's the folks who just don't know anything about these geckos they got from the importer so they make names up. Wall gecko. Now that's imaginative! ;)
Julie B.
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