Hon Dat Rock Gecko

Hon Dat Rock Gecko (Cnemaspis aurantiacopes) is an agamid or gecko recorded for Vietnam in the project inventory. The supporting occurrence note is “Expert range list”. Its use of the exact scientific name is important because Southeast Asian lizard taxonomy changes frequently and several close relatives were described only recently. Where a familiar English name is present it is retained; otherwise the scientific name avoids inventing an unsupported vernacular name (project species data; Reptile Database taxonomy).

Cnemaspis are mostly small, climbing geckos associated with rocks, tree trunks and crevices in forest or karst. Many mainland species are active by day or at twilight and have highly restricted ranges. They take small arthropods and shelter in narrow cracks. These are genus-level traits; colour pattern, scale counts and exact locality are essential for species identification (general Cnemaspis ecology; Reptile Database).