Hemidactylus mabouia
(Moreau de Jonnès, 1818)
heh-mee-DAK-til-us — mah-BOO-ee-uh
SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
Native to Africa (and perhaps parts of South America and the Caribbean, cf. Kluge, 1969, Miscellaneous Publications, Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan. 138: 1–78). It is established in California (Mahrdt et al., 2021, Herpetological Review 52: 84), Florida (Lawson et al., 1991, Herpetological Review 22: 11–12; Krysko, 2019, Hemidactylus mabouia. Pages 329–331 in Krysko et al. (Editors) Amphibians and Reptiles of Florida. University Press of Florida, Gainesville, Florida) and Texas (Fierro-Cabo and Renfro, 2014, BioInvasions Records 3: 309–312). The standard English name changed from Wood Slave to reflect its contemporary usage.
(Krysko, Kenneth and Travis W. Taggart. 2025. Established Exotic Species. Pages 64-87 in Kirsten E. Nicholson (Editor), Scientific and Standard English Names of Amphibians and Reptiles of North America North of Mexico, with Comments Regarding Confidence in Our Understanding, 9th Edition. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Lawrence, Kansas. 87 pp.)
Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2025.04.02.14.40.35)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.77 MB
Taxonomic Etymology:
Etymology ambiguous.
Hemidactylus — Greek for “half-toed.”
mabouia — Possibly derived from a local or indigenous West African word for a gecko or lizard.
First instance(s) of published English names:
No historic English names have been assigned to this taxon yet.
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
The Reptile Database
GenBank
USGS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database
Selected References:
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1818
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Moreau de Jonnès, Alexandre. Monographie du mabouja des murailles, on Gecko Mabouja des Antilles. [Monograph of the wall mabouja, a Gecko Mabouja of the Antilles.] Bulletin des Sciences par la Societe Philomatique [ Bulletin of Sciences by the Philomatic Society] 3(5):138-139
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1969
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Kluge, Arnold G. The evolution and geographical origin of the New World Hemidactylus mabouia-brookii complex (Gekkonidae, Sauria). Miscellaneous Publications, Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan (138):1-78
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1994
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Meshaka, Walter E., Jr, Brian P. Butterfield, and Brian Hauge. Hemidactylus mabouia as an established member of the Florida herpetofauna. Herpetological Review 25(2):80-81
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1998
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Powell, Robert, Crombie, Ronald I., and Boos, Hans E. A. Hemidactylus mabouia Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (674):1-11
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2000
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Meshaka, Walter E., Jr. Colonization dynamics of two exotic geckos (Hemidactylus garnotii and H. mabouia) in Everglades National Park. Journal of Herpetology 34(1):163-168
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2014
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Fierro-Cabo, Alejandro and August Renfro. First record of the tropical house gecko Hemidactylus mabouia (Moreau de Jonnès, 1818) in Texas. BioInvasions Records 3(4):309–312
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