The Unexpected Pleasures of Dragonflying: The Gold Dust Day Gecko

When you're out in the field looking for dragonflies you never know what you might encounter.  Recently, Betsy and I were exploring a botanical garden in Hilo, HI looking for flowers and odonates.  We saw very little in the way of odonates – a Wandering Glider flew by, then we saw a dark damselfly sitting next to a pond being harassed now and then by a yellowish-green damselfly that never sat still for a photo.

What we hadn't expected, though, was the charming little gecko we would find.  Here's a photo of it sitting next to a flower I was photographing:

A gold dust day gecko sitting next to a flower in a Botanical Garden in Hilo, HI.

What a beauty!  I had never seen a gecko that colorful outside the Geico commercials.  It was a bit skittish at first, but it soon got used to me and posed for a few photos.  Here's a good look at its entire body, including the orange markings on the head and hips, the blue booties, and bluish tip of the tail (perhaps a regrowth?)

Gold dust day gecko showing off all its finery.

Here are a couple more shots showing the interesting texture of its skin – like little colored pebbles.

According to the web, these little guys are native to Madagascar and have only fairly recently been introduced to Hawaii, where they are found on most of the main islands.  In Hilo they refer to them as star dust geckos.