Peringuey's leaf-toed gecko

Peringuey's leaf-toed gecko
Conservation status
Data Deficient  (IUCN 2.3)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Subphylum:	Vertebrata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Sauria
Infraorder:	Gekkota
Family:	Gekkonidae
Genus:	Cryptactites Bauer et al., 1997
Species:	C. peringueyi
Binomial name
Cryptactites peringueyi (Boulenger, 1910)
Synonyms[1]
Phyllodactylus peringueyi Boulenger, 1910 Cryptactites peringueyi — Bauer et al., 1997

Peringuey's leaf-toed gecko, Cryptactites peringueyi, is a South African species of gecko named after French entomologist Louis Péringuey.^[2]

It is particularly tiny, not growing more than about 5 centimetres (2.0 in) in total length (including tail), making it the smallest lizard in the region, along with the striped dwarf leaf-toed gecko of the Western Cape.

It has a red-brown body sometimes with thin, pale dark stripes.

This leaf-toed gecko is nocturnal and lives in matted marsh vegetation where it lays two minute eggs in summer.

It is endemic to South Africa, being restricted to a few salt marshes in the Eastern Cape.

It was believed to be extinct for a long time, but a tiny population was rediscovered in 1992 by the estuary of the Kromme river.

References

1. "Cryptactites peringueyi ". The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
2. Beolens B, Watkins M, Grayson M (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. (Cryptactites peringueyi, p. 203).

Further reading

• Boulenger GA (1910). "A Revised List of the South African Reptiles and Batrachians, with Synoptic Tables, special reference to the specimens in the South African Museum, and Descriptions of New Species". Ann. South African Mus. 5: 455-538. (Phyllodactylus peringueyi, new species, pp. 493–494).
• Branch, Bill (2004). Field Guide to Snakes and other Reptiles of Southern Africa. Third Revised edition, Second impression. Sanibel Island, Florida: Ralph Curtis Books. 399 pp. ISBN 0-88359-042-5. (Cryptactites peringueyi, p. 239 + Plate 108).

External links

• World Conservation Monitoring Centre (1996). "Cryptactites peringueyi". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2.3 (2.3). International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved July 28, 2007.