The Ascalabota

The Geckos, which constitute this group, are Lizards of small size, which inhabit the hotter parts of both the Old and the New Worlds, and have always attracted attention by their habit of running with exceeding swiftness along the walls and ceilings of rooms. They are enabled to maintain their hold under these circumstances, in part by the sharpness of their curved, and, in some cases, retractile claws; and, in part, by laminated expansions of the integument of the under-surfaces of their digits, which appear to act in somewhat the same fashion as the sucker of the Remora, or Sucking-fish.

The most important and distinctive characters of these Lizards are:

Their vertebrae are amphiccelous.

Neither the upper nor the lower temporal arcades are ossified, the post-frontal being connected with the squamosal, and the maxilla with the quadrate, by ligament.

The jugal is rudimentary, and the squamosal very small.

There are no eyelids, but the integument becomes transparent as it is continued over the eyes. The integument is soft, or coriaceous, not scaly.