THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Reptilia    Squamata (part)    Gekkonidae  

Tropical House Gecko
Hemidactylus mabouia (Moreau de Jonnès, 1818)

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.

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

Province/State Distribution:
USA: California Florida

First instance(s) of published English names:
No historic English names have been assigned to this taxon yet.

Taxon Links:

  
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
  
The Reptile Database
  
NatureServe
  
iNaturalist
  
GenBank
  
USGS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

Selected References:
1818 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
1969 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
1994 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
1998 Powell, Robert, Crombie, Ronald I., and Boos, Hans E. A. Hemidactylus mabouia Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (674):1-11
2000 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
2014 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

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Monday 19 May 2025 18:17 CT