Indian Golden Gecko or Beddome`s Golden Gecko is an Indian Reptile that bears a scientific name "Calodactylodes aureus" is a species of Gecko known only from the Eastern Ghats Mountain Range of India.
Discovery of Indian Golden Gecko
Beddome`s Golden Gecko or Indian Golden Gecko was rediscovered from the hills near present-day Tirupati Temple. The rediscovery was after over 100 years since its description.
Digits of Indian Golden Gecko
The digits of Indian Golden Gecko are slender at the base, free, with squarish scales beneath, and large trapezoidal penultimate and distal expansions, the lower surface of each of which is covered by two large plates separated by a longitudinal groove; all the digits are clawed, the claw retractile is between the distal plates; in the inner digit, the penultimate expansion is absent. Its body is covered above with small, granular scales, intermixed with larger tubercles; the abdominal scales are juxtaposed. The pupils are vertical. No preanal or femoral pores are present.
Upper Portion of Indian Golden Gecko
Its head is large, oviform, and very distinct from the neck; a strong, rounded supraorbital and canthal ridge is present. It has five deep concavities, a frontal, two postnasals, and two loreals; the snout is longer than the distance between the eye and the ear opening, 1.3 times the diameter of the orbit; the ear opening is vertical, measuring half the diameter of the eye. Its body is not much depressed.
Lower Portion of Indian Golden Gecko
The limbs of Indian Golden Gecko are long and slender. The width of the digital expansion measures about half the diameter of the eye. Its head is covered with very small granules, largest on the canthal ridges; the rostral is four-sided, twice as broad as high, and its posterior border is concave; its nostrils are pierced between the rostral, the first labial, and three nasals; the anterior is large and in contact with its fellow; 12 or 13 upper and as many lower labials occur; the mental is as large as the adjacent labials, or smaller than them; no regular chin-shields are found, but small, polygonal scales pass gradually into the granules which cover the gular region. Its upper surface is covered with minute granules; back with scattered, scarcely prominent, smooth, round, larger tubercles, hardly as large as the ventral scales; the latter flat, smooth, squarish, juxtaposed scales, arranged like the bricks of a wall. The tail is long, cylindrical, remarkably slender, and covered with squarish scales which are much larger beneath. In colour, it is brownish-white above (golden during life), dotted or vermiculated with brown; the lower surfaces are whitish.
Habitat of Indian Golden Gecko
Indian Golden Gecko is found in Indian states like Odisha, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, where it is restricted to the rocky areas of the Eastern Ghats Mountain Range.
Concentration of Indian Golden Gecko
Indian Golden Gecko is found among rocks in dark, shady ravines in the Tirupati Hills
