‘Slender’ creatures used in China village as sore throat ‘remedy’ are new species
In a small mountain village in southern China, a team of researchers set out after dark to survey the region for a group of small, “well-camouflaged” geckos.
At the edge of a karst forest in Dianzi, they came across several abandoned houses whose “earthen walls” were crawling with them, according to a study published July 29 in the peer-reviewed journal Zootaxa.
“When illuminated with a flashlight, the animals quickly crawled into the crevices,” researchers said. They managed to collect 15 geckos from the buildings and have now confirmed they are members of a new species, according to the study.
Hemiphyllodactylus guangnanensis, aslo called the Guangnan slender gecko, is a relatively small, “robust” species with a “flattened” body, a “triangular” head and a short, narrow snout, according to the study.
Males are typically dark gray with large scattered black spots, while females are often a brownish gray, according to the study.
During field interviews, local doctors reported using Hemiphyllodactylus geckos “as a remedy for sore throats,” researchers said. Mediicinal use was a previously unknown threat to these species, according to the study.
The study did not specify how the geckos were used to treat sore throats.
The Guangnan slender gecko was discovered just under 50 miles from its closest relative, the Yanshan slender gecko, accoridng to the study.
Despite their geographic proximity and physical similarities, they are genetically distinct species from different lineages, suggesting they have long existed in small, isolated habitats, according to the study.
The new species is known only from Dianzi Village in Yunnan Province, according to the study. Its discovery brings the number of known Hemiphyllodactylus geckos species in China to 16, researchers said.
Citing a string of recent Hemiphyllodactylus species discoveries, researchers said “there may be a large number” of cryptic gecko species — geckos that closely resemble each other but are genetically different — still to be discovered between China and Vietnam. Additional research is needed to precisely to map out the distribution of Hemiphyllodactylus species in the region, the team said.
The research team included Hongxin Zhou, Yufan Ang, Liangwei Cui, Dongru Zhang, Ziqi Shen, Xiuyan Li, Shuo Liu and Dingqi Rao.
This story was originally published August 29, 2025 at 11:18 AM with the headline "‘Slender’ creatures used in China village as sore throat ‘remedy’ are new species."
