Banded Ground Gecko

Banded Ground Gecko (Goniurosaurus splendens) is a Ryukyu eyelid gecko whose dorsal surface carries minute convex scales interspersed with numerous conical or three-sided tubercles. Diagnostic descriptions also note small scales around the nostril and chin and a pattern of sharply defined body bands that helps separate it from several neighbouring island relatives. Identification should use the full combination of documented structure, pattern and locality because closely related island forms may overlap in general appearance (Wikipedia, general species account; Reptile Database).

It is endemic to Tokunoshima in Japan's Ryukyu Islands, and its type locality is the Jinde-gumui limestone cave at Kametsu. The species is oviparous. Accessible species accounts document its restricted distribution, egg-laying reproduction and technical scale characters, but provide too little species-specific feeding or activity information to describe those subjects without speculation. The description stays within species-level information available from the opened accounts; traits not documented there are omitted rather than transferred from related lizards (Wikipedia, general species account; Reptile Database).