Hemidactylus turcicusMediterranean House Gecko

Ge­o­graphic Range

Mediter­ranean house geckos (Hemi­dacty­lus tur­ci­cus) are na­tive to the west­ern re­gion of the Mid­dle East, north­ern Africa, and the ma­jor­ity of the Mediter­ranean re­gion.

They also in­habit the east­ern coast of Mex­ico, Cuba, France, the Gulf of Mex­ico, and Puerto Rico, but they are non-na­tive to these areas. Mediter­ranean house geckos have also been spot­ted through­out sub­trop­i­cal and tem­per­ate re­gions of North Amer­ica. House geckos have been lo­cated in trop­i­cal re­gions such as South Amer­ica and tem­per­ate re­gions like Vir­ginia. They can also live in areas as far north as Alaska and as far west as Cal­i­for­nia. (Agasyan, et al., 2009; Locey and Stone, 2006; White and Husak, 2015)

Habi­tat

Mediter­ranean house geckos in­habit sites around human areas in­clud­ing uni­ver­sity cam­puses, shrub­lands, ter­res­trial ter­rain, and coastal re­gions. They can also dwell in dimly-lit areas and ceme­ter­ies. Mediter­ranean house geckos in­habit other areas like moun­tain peaks, in­land cliffs and caves. They are more likely to be found in crevices of old, worn down build­ings. Ju­ve­niles tend to be found on side­walks near build­ings. Non-na­tive in­di­vid­u­als have been spot­ted in Texas in­hab­it­ing brick walls, dec­o­ra­tive veg­e­ta­tion, and grass. Geckos also live in stucco build­ings with light­ing around them. Their nests can be spot­ted in trash and under base boards of build­ings. In Louisiana, Locey and Stone (2006) con­ducted ex­per­i­ments with Mediter­ranean house geckos and ob­served that they can live at el­e­va­tions as high as 366 m. For this species, low­est, high­est, and av­er­age el­e­va­tion have not been re­ported. (Agasyan, et al., 2009; Davis, 1974; Locey and Stone, 2006; Me­shaka Jr., et al., 2006; Saenz, 1996; Sta­bler, et al., 2012)

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Mediter­ranean house geckos are com­monly light in color or white. How­ever, geckos can be other col­ors such as pink, light brown, or sandy yel­low. Smooth scales are on their ven­tral side and spots are on their dor­sal side. Other dis­tinct char­ac­ter­is­tics in­clude a dark mark­ing that ex­tends from the nos­tril to the eye to the upper ear. Geckos have large, ver­ti­cal pupils with no eye­lids. Gran­u­lar dor­sal scales (14 – 16 rows) are along their bod­ies and keeled dor­sal tu­ber­cles (6-8 rows) are along the tail. Typ­i­cal lengths of adult Mediter­ranean house geckos range from 10-13 cm with the tail in­cluded. Male snout – vent lengths range be­tween 4.4 cm and 5.8 cm, while fe­male snout – vent lengths range be­tween 4.4 cm and 6.0 cm. The max­i­mum length of a gecko can be up to 15 cm. Tails can be re­gen­er­ated after they have been bro­ken off. Ju­ve­nile tail re­gen­er­a­tion rates are faster than adults. In 30 days, ju­ve­nile tails re­gen­er­ated up to 85%. Adult males could re­gen­er­ate up to 60%, and fe­males up to 40% of their tails in 30 days. Pha­langes are in­di­vid­ual with 6-8 di­vi­sions of lamel­lae under first toe and be­tween 9 - 10 under the fourth toe. Claws are at the end of their toes.

Males and fe­males are mor­pho­log­i­cally vari­able by lo­ca­tion. Male geckos pos­sess head shapes more asym­met­ric than fe­male geckos. Ben­e­fits of this se­lec­tive fea­ture in­clude wider mouth open­ings for mat­ing pur­poses and stronger force of bite. The typ­i­cal range for male head lengths is be­tween 1.0 cm and 1.5 cm with the widths rang­ing from 0.8 cm to 1.2 cm. The depths range from 0.4 cm to 0.8 cm. Fe­male head lengths range from 0.8 cm to 1.4 cm with the widths rang­ing be­tween 0.7 cm and 1.2 cm and the depths rang­ing be­tween 0.4 cm and 0.8 cm. Ge­o­graphic lo­ca­tion also plays a fac­tor in how dif­fer­ent ori­en­ta­tions af­fect mor­phol­ogy. Male geckos from the west­ern part of the United States pos­sess heads with more depth (0.6-0.75 cm) than geckos found fur­ther east (0.55 – 0.7 cm). Fe­males that are west­ward have heads not as wide (0.75-0.9 cm) as east­ern fe­males (0.85 – 1.15 cm).

Ma­ture males also have vis­i­ble pre­anal pores and post-cloa­cal bones com­pared to fe­males. Post–cloa­cal bones are one to two bones that are pos­te­rior to their uri­nary and fecal tracts. Pre­anal pores are glands that re­lease chem­i­cals such as pheromones or ones used to mark ter­ri­tory. These pores in males could range be­tween 3 and 10. Vivid stripes de­velop on their tails as hatch­lings and ju­ve­niles. Snout–vent length of ju­ve­nile geckos can range from 3.0 cm to 4.4 cm. The length of hatch­lings can range from 0.94 cm – 1.19 cm, with their body width rang­ing from 0.8 cm - 0.98 cm, and mass from 0.34-0.56 g. (Granatosky and Krysko, 2014; John­son, et al., 2005; McCoy, 1970; Texas State Uni­ver­sity, 2014; Rose and Bar­bour, 1968; Saenz and Con­ner, 1996; Sel­cer, 1990)

  • Sexual Dimorphism
  • male larger
  • sexes shaped differently
  • Range length
    10 to 13 cm
    3.94 to 5.12 in

De­vel­op­ment

Through­out early de­vel­op­ment, Mediter­ranean house gecko eggs that vary in color de­pend­ing on stage of de­vel­op­ment. Col­ors of eggs can be white, pink, or blue. It's un­clear how the col­ors re­late to the de­vel­op­ment of eggs. Mediter­ranean house gecko egg length ranges be­tween 10.4 – 11.7 mm. Sel­cer (1990) re­ported the width of the eggs be­tween 8.5 – 9.9 mm and the mass of eggs be­tween 0.34 – 0.56 g. Rose (1968) recorded the snout–vent length of ju­ve­niles or hatch­lings as be­tween 25.0 – 27.7 mm. Sex of the ju­ve­niles is un­able to be de­ter­mined until pre­anal glands de­velop on the males. The in­cu­ba­tion pe­riod for house gecko eggs av­er­ages at about 40 days in tem­per­a­tures of around 31 de­grees Cel­sius. Fe­male ovar­ian fol­li­cles av­er­age at 2.5 mm. in di­am­e­ter. When ovu­la­tion takes place, fol­li­cles can range be­tween 8 – 8.5 mm. in di­am­e­ter. Vitel­lo­ge­n­e­sis, or de­vel­op­ment of yolky ovaries, be­gins in March and April. Male and fe­male growth rates vary per month in non-na­tive habi­tats such as Texas, Florida and Louisiana. Growth is in­de­ter­mi­nate.

In Texas, Sel­cer (1986) ob­served the av­er­age length of geckos to be 10.9 mm. In Florida, Punzo (2001) mea­sured the min­i­mum length at 0.8 mm and the max­i­mum up to 6.9 mm. In Louisiana, geckos demon­strated a neg­a­tive growth rate. Neg­a­tive growth rate con­tributes to the shrink­ing of geckos’ snout-vent length. This was mainly com­mon in males dur­ing breed­ing sea­son, al­lo­cat­ing en­ergy to find a mate. Paulis­sen (2014) mea­sured the min­i­mum growth rate per month at -6.4 mm and the max­i­mum growth rate per month at 14.1 mm. (Paulis­sen, et al., 2014; Punzo, 2001; Rose and Bar­bour, 1968; Sel­cer, 1990)

Re­pro­duc­tion

Male house geckos use click­ing vo­cal­iza­tions when ready to mate with fe­male house geckos. Male geckos pro­duce mul­ti­ple clicks that are to the pat­tern of the fe­male house gecko squeaks. Male clicks for mat­ing with fe­males are equiv­a­lent or longer than the pre­vi­ous click. Franken­berg (1982) demon­strated stud­ies where parts of male click­ing calls rang­ing be­tween 5 and 5.5 kilo­hertz every 10 mil­lisec­onds. Fe­males pro­duce short, loud squeaks in be­tween the clicks of the male. It is also com­mon for fe­male house geckos to pro­duce loud, melodic squeaks in be­tween male clicks to be re­leased from a male. Loud, short mat­ing squeaks pro­duced by fe­males av­er­aged at 5 kilo­hertz every 10 mil­lisec­onds. Loud, melodic squeaks pro­duced by fe­males av­er­aged at 5.5 kilo­hertz every 10 mil­lisec­onds House geckos are polyg­a­mous with a sex ratio of 1:1. Cop­u­la­tory bit­ing is a mech­a­nism that male geckos use to mate with fe­males. Male geckos with big­ger heads or larger bod­ies have bet­ter mat­ing suc­cess than smaller males. Big­ger males tend to have stronger bit­ing be­hav­iors lead­ing to suc­cess­ful fer­til­iza­tion. (Franken­berg, 1982; John­son, et al., 2005)

Fe­male Mediter­ranean house geckos have a breed­ing sea­son from April to Au­gust of every year. Fe­males begin to mate be­tween late April and early or mid-May. Egg clutches of house geckos are an av­er­age of two eggs. The max­i­mum num­ber of clutches laid at one time is four. Fe­males lay eggs from mid–May to Au­gust. Fe­males can take up to two months to lay their clutches of eggs. Eggs are laid with or with­out shells. Shelled eggs are dis­tinct due to their hard body wall. Eggs lose their shells when they are close to hatch­ing. As the in­ter­nal egg mem­brane dis­ap­pears, the shell be­comes moist and translu­cent. Fe­males con­tinue to pro­duce eggs through­out breed­ing sea­son. Birth mass of eggs ranges be­tween 0.34 to 0.56g.

Fe­male house gecko mat­u­ra­tion is achieved in the win­ter or spring sea­son of their first or sec­ond year. Age at fe­male sex­ual ma­tu­rity can range be­tween 4-5 months to a year. Fe­males can also de­velop longer snout–vent lengths in order to have greater vol­ume to carry eggs. Fe­males col­lect male sperm in a pos­te­rior fun­nel shaped organ called the in­fundibu­lum. Fe­males ex­pe­ri­ence de­layed fer­til­iza­tion. The longest that sperm can sur­vive in this organ is 5 months. Be­cause of this delay, their ges­ta­tion pe­riod is un­known. Growth rates at peak sex­ual ma­tu­rity for males and fe­males av­er­age at 10.9 mm per month. Male house geckos reach sex­ual ma­tu­rity within a year or less.

Age of sex­ual ma­tu­rity seems to vary greatly across their na­tive and non-na­tive ranges. In Turkey, it's re­ported as 2-3 years for both sexes. In the south­ern United States, it's 18 months for fe­males. (Eck­stut, et al., 2009; Kanat and Tok, 2015; Rose and Bar­bour, 1968)

  • Breeding interval
    Mediterranean house geckos breed once yearly
  • Breeding season
    Spring - Summer
  • Range number of offspring
    2 to 4
  • Average number of offspring
    2
  • Average gestation period
    40 days
  • Average time to independence
    0 minutes
  • Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
    4- 5 months to 36 months
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
    18 months
  • Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
    36 (high) months
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
    12 months

Very lit­tle is known about the parental in­vest­ment of Mediter­ranean house geckos. In­for­ma­tion on how ju­ve­niles’ ben­e­fit is un­known. Adults have been ob­served bit­ing the ju­ve­niles. It is pos­si­ble that this oc­curs due to ju­ve­niles’ in­vad­ing adult ter­ri­to­ries. House gecko nests were com­monly found in at­tics, sheds, garages, and in wall boards. Com­mu­nal nests where fe­males come and lay their eggs at a cer­tain lo­ca­tion were ob­served. A range of 2 – 20 eggs were found in this these types of nests. Egg shells from pre­vi­ous ju­ve­niles could be found be­neath the new eggs. Stud­ies on parental in­ter­ac­tion with ju­ve­nile house geckos are un­known. (Franken­berg, 1982; ; Sel­cer, 1990)

  • Parental Investment
  • no parental involvement

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Mediter­ranean house geckos can live for up to 8 years in cap­tiv­ity. In Turkey, Kanay and Tok (2015) ex­am­ined wild-caught mu­seum spec­i­mens, and found that adult fe­males were 4-9 years old and males were 4-8. No an­i­mals were dis­cov­ered older than 9. In Texas, Sel­cer (1986) found that an­nual turnover for adults (3 years or older) was 55%. Oddly, ju­ve­nile sur­vivor­ship was as high as the adults, un­less ju­ve­niles were below 30mm SVL. If smaller, sur­vivor­ship was lower. (Kanat and Tok, 2015; Sel­cer, 1986)

  • Typical lifespan
    Status: wild
    4 to 9 hours
  • Typical lifespan
    Status: captivity
    8 (high) years

Be­hav­ior

Mediter­ranean house geckos are noc­tur­nal. In Florida, Punzo (2001) re­ported that be­tween 2100-2359 h, these geckos were most ac­tive.

Many ag­nos­tic be­hav­iors are per­formed. Be­hav­iors such as avoid­ance, warn­ing, ag­gres­sion, and sen­sory have been ob­served. When avoid­ing other geckos or species, be­hav­iors such as re­treat and freez­ing occur. Warn­ing be­hav­iors in­clude “fac­ing off” with an­other species, tail wag­ging, squeak­ing, push - ups, and back arch­ing. Char­ac­ter­is­tics of ag­gres­sive be­hav­iors in­volved snap­ping of the jaws, chas­ing and fight­ing. Sen­sory be­hav­ior in­cludes nose tap­ping and tongue flick­ing.

Male geckos can pre­sent ag­gres­sive be­hav­ior when male in­trud­ers en­tered their ter­ri­tory. When house geckos ex­hibit warn­ing be­hav­ior, res­i­dents re­sponded with warn­ing be­hav­ior. Ju­ve­niles avoid in­ter­ac­tion with adult house geckos due to their ag­gres­sive be­hav­ior when in fa­vor­able con­di­tions. Male house geckos demon­strate the most ag­gres­sion to­wards ju­ve­niles. House geckos can also make di­verse noises and click­ing pat­terns when try­ing to mate. House geckos also flick their tongues at tres­passers. Males pro­duce clicks in order to main­tain dom­i­nance within a clan of geckos. Cop­u­la­tory bit­ing is also done by males in order to at­tract a mate. Mediter­ranean house geckos also use their sense of smell as well as pheromones to hunt and sense preda­tors. Vi­sion is used when hunt­ing for prey. Se­lec­tion of prey is de­pen­dent on if prey is alive. (Briggs, 2012; Punzo, 2001)

Home Range

Klaw­in­ski (1991) found the mean size of home range of Mediter­ranean geckos was slightly more than 4 m^2 and that there was no dif­fer­ence among adult males, adult fe­males, and ju­ve­niles. How­ever, the sam­pling in­ter­vals for the study were about 6 weeks within a cal­en­dar year. There is no in­for­ma­tion on how much adult male, adult fe­male, or ju­ve­nile geckos move on their home build­ing dur­ing an en­tire sea­son of ac­tiv­ity or from year to year. Ter­ri­to­ri­al­ity is se­lec­tive to the ju­ve­nile house geckos.

Klaw­in­ski also re­ported max­i­mum lin­ear move­ments of 18 me­ters – and that dis­tance was pretty rare. Those in­di­vid­u­als that did move this dis­tance would re­turn to their orig­i­nal area. Move­ment pat­terns are not dif­fer­ent be­tween adult male and fe­male house geckos. Ju­ve­niles are more likely to move longer dis­tances than adults. (Klaw­in­ski, 1992; ; Paulis­sen, et al., 2013)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Mediter­ranean house geckos have var­ied squeaky vo­cal­iza­tions dif­fer by age and sex. Ju­ve­niles can demon­strate calls that are loud, melodic, or have melodic in­flec­tion. Franken­berg (1982) ob­served that noisy squeaks are made when adults would move to­ward the ju­ve­nile. Har­monic in­flec­tions are pro­duced when adults make phys­i­cal con­tact with the ju­ve­nile. Ju­ve­niles only vo­cal­ize when threat­ened. Fe­male vo­cal­iza­tions are the same as ju­ve­niles ex­cept they vary in length. Short, noisy calls are a re­sponse ap­prov­ing male suit­ors. When at­tacked by an­other species, they make long, noisy calls. Melod­i­cally in­flected, long calls dur­ing the act of breed­ing means fe­males want to be re­leased from males. In­def­i­nite melodic squeaks are made when fe­males are threat­ened by an­other species. Males have the most di­verse of vo­cal­iza­tions. They pro­duce the same squeaks as fe­males and ju­ve­niles. How­ever, their most com­mon vo­cal­iza­tion is a se­ries of clicks. Dom­i­nant, ter­ri­to­r­ial males make this noise when males, fe­males, or a bunch geckos are around them. They are also used to at­tract mates. Males will click in time with fe­male squeaks. They can also re­peat the same short, noisy squeaks as fe­males. Long, noisy squeaks are gen­er­ated dur­ing de­fense or con­flict with an­other species. Loud, melodic in­flec­tion is made when threats are de­tected.

When en­coun­ter­ing other species like Indo-Pa­cific house geckos (Hemi­dacty­lus gar­notii), Mediter­ranean house geckos re­mained grouped in their com­mu­nity and avoided con­tact.

Senses such as smell, and chem­i­cal com­mu­ni­ca­tion are used to de­tect in­trud­ers and hunt­ing. Smell is used to let a gecko know of its en­vi­ron­ment. Geckos flick their tongues at in­trud­ers. Their tongues pick up chem­i­cals/pheromones that help them com­mu­ni­cate with other geckos. (Franken­berg, 1982; Franken­berg, 1984)

Food Habits

Mediter­ranean house geckos eat a va­ri­ety of species. They pri­mar­ily eat in­sects, pill­bugs, and small crus­taceans. Spi­ders and non–fly­ing arthro­pods are also com­monly eaten. Mediter­ranean house geckos are also vi­sual eaters. They are se­lec­tive about what food they will eat de­pend­ing on if their prey is alive or dead. Rose and Bar­bour (1968) ob­served how live meal­worms were more com­monly se­lected over the re­ported spring diets con­sist­ing of 57% cater­pil­lars (N=21 in­di­vid­u­als). In sum­mer, 25% of the diet con­sisted of ear­wigs, mos­qui­toes, leafhop­pers, and ants (N=38).

Gecko size dif­fer­ences fac­tor how much house geckos will eat. Ju­ve­niles con­sumed prey such as leafhop­pers and true flies that are usu­ally smaller, while adult geckos con­sume larger prey, such as grasshop­pers, cater­pil­lars, and pill­bugs. Mi­cro­hab­i­tats can also shape their diets. Geckos that in­habit build­ings al­most ex­clu­sively eat grasshop­pers.

Males and fe­males also ex­hibit se­lec­tiv­ity over the kinds of arthro­pods that are con­sumed. Males are more com­monly choose fly­ing prey. (Rose and Bar­bour, 1968; Saenz, 1996)

  • Animal Foods
  • insects
  • terrestrial non-insect arthropods

Pre­da­tion

Preda­tors of the Mediter­ranean house gecko in­clude spi­ders, whip scor­pi­ons, cats (Felis catus), bats, and Cuban tree frogs (Os­teophilus septen­tri­on­alis). Pre­da­tion pres­sures are low for house geckos due to con­stant ac­tiv­ity around street lights and dis­tance from shel­ter. Low pre­da­tion causes house geckos to main­tain a low mor­tal­ity rate. Male and fe­male house geckos re­lease loud and noisy squeaks when at­tacked and melod­i­cally in­flected squeaks when threat­ened. Male house geckos’ de­fense squeaks av­er­age at 5 kilo­hertz. Fe­male de­fense squeaks av­er­age at 4.5 kilo­hertz.

Ju­ve­nile and hatch­lings use bright tails with bands on them as a mech­a­nism to dis­tract preda­tors. Wag­ging of tails are used to dis­tract po­ten­tial preda­tors from eat­ing the geckos. Preda­tors at­tack tails and ju­ve­niles can es­cape, tails will re­gen­er­ate over time (Franken­berg, 1982; Punzo, 2001; Williams and Lance, 2007)

  • Known Predators
    • Cats (Felis catus)
    • Cuban tree frogs (Osteophilus septentrionalis)
    • Bats
    • Whip scorpions
    • Large spiders

Ecosys­tem Roles

Mediter­ranean house geckos can be­come in­fected with a pen­tas­tomic crus­taceans, Rail­li­etiella fre­na­tus and Rail­li­etella teague­selfi. In Texas, a sam­ple of 136 geckos re­vealed par­a­sites in 52 in­di­vid­u­als. These par­a­sites in­cluded one species of liver fluke Meso­coelium meg­gitti and three tape­worms Mesoces­toides, Oo­cho­ris­tica ameivae and Oo­cho­ris­tica scelo­pori. Round­worm par­a­sites in­cluded Cos­mo­cer­coides vari­abilis, Os­wal­docruzia pip­i­ens, Para­pharyn­godon cuben­sis, and Physa­loptera larva.

House geckos don't ex­pe­ri­ence sig­nif­i­cant pre­da­tion, but can be preyed upon by bats, cats, and large frogs. They eat a va­ri­ety of in­sects. (McAl­lis­ter and Bursey, 2016; Pence and Sel­cer, 1988; Riley, et al., 1988)

Com­men­sal/Par­a­sitic Species
  • pen­tas­tomic crus­taceans Rail­li­etiella fre­na­tus
  • pen­tas­tomic crus­taceans Rail­li­etella teague­selfi
  • liver flukes Meso­coelium meg­gitti
  • tape­worms Mesoces­toides
  • tape­worms Oo­cho­ris­tica ameivae
  • tape­worms Oo­cho­ris­tica scelo­pori
  • round­worms Cos­mo­cer­coides vari­abilis
  • round­worms Os­wal­docruzia pip­i­ens
  • round­worms Para­pharyn­godon cuben­sis
  • round­worms Physa­loptera

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Mediter­ranean house geckos are oc­ca­sion­ally col­lected and kept as pets. (Agasyan, et al., 2009)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Mediter­ranean house geckos are con­sid­ered an in­va­sive species in the U.S and else­where. They are known to trans­mit sal­mo­nella to hu­mans. (We­ter­ings and Vet­ter, 2018)

  • Negative Impacts
  • injures humans
    • carries human disease

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Mediter­ranean house geckos are a species of "Least Con­cern" on the IUCN Red List. They have no spe­cial sta­tus on the U.S. Fed­eral List, CITES, and in the State of Michi­gan.

Within its na­tive Eu­ro­pean range, these geckos are "a pro­tected fau­nal species" under Ap­pen­dix III of the Bern Con­ven­tion. Prtoc­tions are lim­ited to them in­hab­it­ing al­ready-pro­tected places.

These species have been in­va­sive in many areas out­side their na­tive Mediter­ranean range. They are be­lieve to be the most com­mon in­va­sive gecko in Florida, and have a high tol­er­ance of both ex­treme heat and cold. Their range across Eu­rope and non-na­tive North Amer­i­can is sus­pected to ex­pand in light of cli­mate change. We­ter­ings and Vet­ter (2018) pre­dicted that Mediter­ranean house geckos are the most like species to in­vade habi­tats that no other mem­ber of this in­va­sive genus has yet in­vaded.

Clearly, there are no con­ser­va­tion mea­sures in place. In­deed, there are ef­forts to keep these geckos out of new ter­ri­to­ries (e.g., in Aus­tralia). The genus, as a whole, is sus­pected to out­com­pete na­tive rep­tiles, as these geckos are tol­er­ant of human habi­ta­tion and re­spond fa­vor­ably to ar­ti­fi­cial light. De­spite these wor­ries, there are no ac­tive, large-scale ef­forts to re­move geckos from their in­vaded ranges. (Agasyan, et al., 2009; We­ter­ings and Vet­ter, 2018)

Con­trib­u­tors

Jayla Smith (au­thor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Lau­ren Bur­roughs (ed­i­tor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Layne DiBuono (ed­i­tor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Lind­sey Lee (ed­i­tor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Karen Pow­ers (ed­i­tor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Galen Bur­rell (ed­i­tor), Spe­cial Pro­jects.

Glossary

Nearctic

living in the Nearctic biogeographic province, the northern part of the New World. This includes Greenland, the Canadian Arctic islands, and all of the North American as far south as the highlands of central Mexico.

World Map

Neotropical

living in the southern part of the New World. In other words, Central and South America.

World Map

acoustic

uses sound to communicate

bilateral symmetry

having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.

carnivore

an animal that mainly eats meat

chemical

uses smells or other chemicals to communicate

delayed fertilization

a substantial delay (longer than the minimum time required for sperm to travel to the egg) takes place between copulation and fertilization, used to describe female sperm storage.

dominance hierarchies

ranking system or pecking order among members of a long-term social group, where dominance status affects access to resources or mates

ectothermic

animals which must use heat acquired from the environment and behavioral adaptations to regulate body temperature

fertilization

union of egg and spermatozoan

forest

forest biomes are dominated by trees, otherwise forest biomes can vary widely in amount of precipitation and seasonality.

indeterminate growth

Animals with indeterminate growth continue to grow throughout their lives.

insectivore

An animal that eats mainly insects or spiders.

introduced

referring to animal species that have been transported to and established populations in regions outside of their natural range, usually through human action.

iteroparous

offspring are produced in more than one group (litters, clutches, etc.) and across multiple seasons (or other periods hospitable to reproduction). Iteroparous animals must, by definition, survive over multiple seasons (or periodic condition changes).

motile

having the capacity to move from one place to another.

mountains

This terrestrial biome includes summits of high mountains, either without vegetation or covered by low, tundra-like vegetation.

nocturnal

active during the night

oviparous

reproduction in which eggs are released by the female; development of offspring occurs outside the mother's body.

pet trade

the business of buying and selling animals for people to keep in their homes as pets.

pheromones

chemicals released into air or water that are detected by and responded to by other animals of the same species

seasonal breeding

breeding is confined to a particular season

sexual

reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female

solitary

lives alone

sperm-storing

mature spermatozoa are stored by females following copulation. Male sperm storage also occurs, as sperm are retained in the male epididymes (in mammals) for a period that can, in some cases, extend over several weeks or more, but here we use the term to refer only to sperm storage by females.

suburban

living in residential areas on the outskirts of large cities or towns.

tactile

uses touch to communicate

temperate

that region of the Earth between 23.5 degrees North and 60 degrees North (between the Tropic of Cancer and the Arctic Circle) and between 23.5 degrees South and 60 degrees South (between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle).

terrestrial

Living on the ground.

territorial

defends an area within the home range, occupied by a single animals or group of animals of the same species and held through overt defense, display, or advertisement

tropical

the region of the earth that surrounds the equator, from 23.5 degrees north to 23.5 degrees south.

urban

living in cities and large towns, landscapes dominated by human structures and activity.

visual

uses sight to communicate

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