Sri Lankan Blotched Bent-toed Gecko

The Sri Lankan blotched bent-toed gecko, also called the northern Sri Lanka gecko or demon gecko, is a small ground-dwelling gecko of the dry plains of northern Sri Lanka below 300 m. Records include Mannar, Puttalam, Polonnaruwa, Giritale and Sigiriya. The body is stout and cylindrical, the tail heavy and tapering, and a regrown tail is turnip-shaped. The back has two cross rows of dark blotches, and the tail is banded. Two subspecies are described, yakhuna in the north-east and north-central and zonatus in the north-west (Wikipedia, general species account).

It lives in deciduous and scrub forest, is crepuscular, hides under rotting timber and leaves by day and emerges at dusk to feed on small arthropods such as termites. Four eggs are laid at a time in January and incubation is 95 days. Nationally Vulnerable (Sri Lanka National Red List 2012, listed as Geckoella yakhuna).