The four-clawed gecko (Gehyra mutilata, also known as the stump-toed gecko, tender-skinned house gecko, sugar lizard, or Pacific gecko, or butiki) is a wide-ranging lizard

Lizard

Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with nearly 3800 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica as well as most oceanic island chains...

 that is probably native to Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...

. It has made its way to several areas of the world including Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

, Indochina

Indochina

The Indochinese peninsula, is a region in Southeast Asia. It lies roughly southwest of China, and east of India. The name has its origins in the French, Indochine, as a combination of the names of "China" and "India", and was adopted when French colonizers in Vietnam began expanding their territory...

, and many of the U.S.

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 Pacific Islands

Pacific Islands

The Pacific Islands comprise 20,000 to 30,000 islands in the Pacific Ocean. The islands are also sometimes collectively called Oceania, although Oceania is sometimes defined as also including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago....

. The gecko

Gecko

Geckos are lizards belonging to the infraorder Gekkota, found in warm climates throughout the world. They range from 1.6 cm to 60 cm....

 is somewhat plump, with delicate skin. The skin is usually colored a soft purplish/pinkish gray with golden spots on younger specimens; these spots eventually fade with age.

Description

Head longer than broad; snout longer than distance between eye and ear-opening, about 1.3 times the diameter of the orbit; forehead with a median groove; ear-opening moderately large, suboval. Body and limbs moderately elongate, depressed, a fold of the skin bordering the hind limb posteriorly. Digits short, more or less webbed at the base; the inferior lamellae angular, divided by a median groove. Upper surface and throat covered with small granular scales, largest and flat on the back. Abdominal scales moderate. Rostral quadrangular, broader than deep, with a median cleft above; nostril pierced between the rostral, the first labial, and three nasals, the upper much the largest and generally in contact with its fellow; 8 or 9 upper and 6 or 7 lower labials; mental moderately large, pentagonal; chin-shields 3 pairs, inner very large, elongate, outer small, frequently broken up into small scales. Femoral pores in a doubly curved line, angular in the middle, 14 to19 on each side. Tail depressed, normally with a sharpish, minutely serrated lateral edge; its upper surface covered with very small flat scales, its lower surface generally with a median series of large transversely dilated scales. Greyish or reddish brown above, uniform or dotted or variegated with darker; lower surfaces uniform whitish.

From snout to vent 2.25 inches; tail 2.25.

Distribution

Ceylon, Burma, Malaysia, The Philippines,Indonesia, New Guinea, Mascarenes and Seychelles, Western Mexico, Maui, Hawaii.

Habits

Like many other geckos, it is very adaptable to its surroundings, although it usually prefers woodlands, rocky areas, and human dwellings. It is also very common on sand beaches in Hawaii, where it is considered an invasive species

Invasive species

"Invasive species", or invasive exotics, is a nomenclature term and categorization phrase used for flora and fauna, and for specific restoration-preservation processes in native habitats, with several definitions....

. The geckos make themselves at home in people's houses, don't seem to mind the humans living beside them; many people don't mind the geckos either, perhaps because, being a nocturnally active species that spends much of its time high up on walls and ceilings; they are quite unobtrusive, and because they helpfully prey on household insects.

The species is fairly large for a gecko, reaching up to 12 cm. Its tail can reach almost the entire length of the body.

Like most geckos they are oviparous, i.e. reproduce by laying eggs.

The four-clawed gecko shares with the Tokay gecko

Tokay gecko

The Tokay Gecko is a nocturnal arboreal gecko, ranging from northeast India and Bangladesh, throughout Southeast Asia, Philippines to Indonesia and western New Guinea. Its native habitat is rainforest trees and cliffs, and it also frequently adapts to rural human habitations, roaming walls and...

 an unusual ability (for lizards): it is able to vocalize

Animal communication

Animal communication is any behavior on the part of one animal that has an effect on the current or future behaviour of another animal. The study of animal communication, is sometimes called Zoosemiotics has played an important part in the...

, making chirping noises reminiscent of a cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

.