Gonatodes concinnatus
—
Collared Forest Gecko
Also known as:
O’Shaughnessy’s Gecko
Gonatodes concinnatus, unlike its very similar-looking cousin Gonatodes humeralis, is generally found on tree trunks well within the forest, not at forest edges or in human habitations. Consequently they are seen significantly less often, except of course by the people hiking in the forest looking for herps.
Here is a complete list of the herps I saw in the wild on my 2013 MT Amazon Expeditions trip.
Like several other diurnal Amazonian lizards, these geckos can often be found sleeping at night on large flat leaves. Often they exhibit very pale colors when doing so. I'm thinking this one might be a gravid female, with that darker gray/blue area being an egg.
Here's a male showing off his bright breeding colors. He was in this awkward-looking position on a large tree trunk at night.
I thought that adult male from Peru was pretty until I saw this fellow. Wow!
This one might be as pretty as the previous one, but its choice of bed made it hard to photograph well. If I hadn't seen such a beautiful specimen fully out in the open a few days earlier, I might have tried to coax this one out into a better position, but since I had I just let him hang out where he wanted to hang out.
Online references:
- Gonatodes concinnatus account on The Reptile Database
- Gonatodes concinnatus account on iNaturalist
- Gonatodes concinnatus account on Reptiles of Ecuador
Printed references:
- Arteaga, A., Bustamente, L., and Vieira, J. 2024. Reptiles of Ecuador: Life in the middle of the world
- Bartlett, R.D., and Bartlett, P. 2003. Reptiles and Amphibians of the Amazon: An Ecotourist's Guide
- Dixon, J. R. and Soini, P. 1986. The Reptiles of the Upper Amazon Basin, Iquitos Region, Peru