This is N. asper, recognized by name rather than appearance
Australia! A veritable land of geckos! But from among this plethora of hobbyist favorites, one group, those of the genus Nephrurus, stands out, or at least once stood out, by the presence of knobs tipping the shortened and/or fattened tails. But now, with its inclusion to the genus by Aaron Bauer, the old Underwoodisaurus millii, a species with a comparatively fat but long tail that bears no visible tipping knob, has become a member of the knobbed cluster. It is N. millii. All are capable of vocalizations.

But this blog post is about only 2 members of the genus whose tails differ from the rest but that are themselves of confusingly similar appearance. These two, the Queensland Rough Knob-tail, Nephrurus asper and the Centralian Rough Knob-tail, N. amyae have, by far, the shortest tails in the genus. The former inhabits much of Queensland, from the Cape York Peninsula southward and the latter ranges over much of central Australia including Northern Territory and extreme eastern Western Australia. Both are associated with ledges, rocks, and arid soils.but in eastern Queensland N. asper may be found to range into areas a little moister than the norm. There it seems associated with creviced, rocky, ledges.

These 2 species are so similar that unless their geographic range is known you will have difficulty determining which is which. The species name asper relates to the rough-skin of these geckos, while amyae is a patronym. Although both are “sand” colored, of the 2, N. amyae, beings associated with red sand areas in Australia, is often the redder while N. asper tends to vary from sand tan to pale brown. Both have faint darker crossbands with the nuchal (neck) band being the most prominent. Dorsally and laterally these two geckos have spiny scales encircled by somewhat enlarged smoother scales.


Both species are hardy captives, feeding well on insects and pill-bugs. They will drink water droplets from the sides of the terrarium or from their own scales when gently sprayed. They may not recognize a shallow dish as a water source. Both species are adult at a svl of 4 ½ to just over 5 inches with the Centralian being slightly the larger and the very short tail adding a few fractions of an inch. They are, like many geckos, terrestrial, lack expanded digital laminae, fully capable of burrowing in suitable soils, and are oviparous.