NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Kwanghua Cave Gecko [kwanghua]
Goniurosaurus hainanensis Barbour, 1908
Source-backed taxonomic record
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Hainan leopard gecko (Goniurosaurus hainanensis)
Melvin TOULLEC · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Image sourceProvider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.
Open encyclopedia reference
Goniurosaurus hainanensis is a nocturnal species of gecko endemic to the Hainan Island of China. Its common names are the Chinese cave gecko, Hainan cave gecko or simply cave gecko or simply the Chinese leopard gecko. The exotic pet trade has been driving numbers of this rare species down since its categorization in the early 2000s, and could eventually lead to its extinction. In recent years, the population has stabilized.
Wikipedia contributors, Goniurosaurus hainanensis; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T13:00:52.083645+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Goniurosaurus hainanensis Barbour, 1908
- Name authority
- Barbour, 1908
- Common name
- Kwanghua Cave Gecko [kwanghua]
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Reptilia
- Order
- Squamata
- Family
- Eublepharidae
- Genus
- Goniurosaurus
- Extinction status
- Not supplied by this source
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classReptilia Laurenti, 1768
- orderSquamata Oppel, 1811
- suborderGekkota
- familyEublepharidae
- genusGoniurosaurus
- speciesGoniurosaurus hainanensis Barbour, 1908
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Goniurosaurus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Bawangling Leopard geckoGoniurosaurus bawanglingensis Grismer, Shi, Orlov & Ananjeva, 2002 | EublepharidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Cat Ba Leopard GeckoGoniurosaurus catbaensis Ziegler, Truong, Schmitz, Stenke & Rösler, 2008 | EublepharidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Goniurosaurus huuliensis Orlov, Ryabov, Nguyen, Nguyen & Ho, 2008 | EublepharidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Kuroiwa's eyelid geckoGoniurosaurus kuroiwae (Namiye, 1912) | EublepharidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Guangxi Cave GeckoGoniurosaurus kwangsiensis Yang & Chan, 2015 | EublepharidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Libo Leopard GeckoGoniurosaurus liboensis Wang, Yang & Grismer, 2013 | EublepharidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Chinese leopard geckoGoniurosaurus luii Grismer, Viets & Boyle, 1999 | EublepharidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Iheyajima Leopard GeckoGoniurosaurus toyamai Grismer, Ota & Tanaka, 1994 | EublepharidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Yamashina’s Leopard GeckoGoniurosaurus yamashinae (Okada, 1936) | EublepharidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Zhe-long’s Leopard GeckoGoniurosaurus zhelongi Wang, Jin, Li & Grismer, 2014 | EublepharidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Gezhi Cave GeckoGoniurosaurus gezhi Zhu, HE & Li, 2020 | EublepharidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Wu’s Cave GeckoGoniurosaurus wuzhengjuni Chen, Yu, Li, LI & Chen, 2026 | EublepharidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Goniurosaurus lichtenfelderi hainanensis | synonym |
| Goniurosaurus kwanghua Zhu & HE ex Zhou et al., 2020 Zhu & HE ex Zhou et al., 2020 | synonym |
| Goniurosaurus sinensis Zhou, Peng, Hou & Yuan, 2019 Zhou, Peng, Hou & Yuan, 2019 | synonym |
Documented distribution
Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Goniurosaurus&species=hainanensis Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:3GXYS. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.