Slender creature with two visible eggs found in Laos village. It’s a new species
CLARIFICATION: The original study misspelled a co-author’s name. Researchers corrected the error in a note published Sept. 10.
The corrected story continues below.
As night settled across a village in Laos, a slender creature with two eggs visible inside its belly emerged from its hiding place. Its “large” eyes scanned the nearby houses and gardens, but it wasn’t the only one looking around.
Scientists noticed the lurking animal — and discovered a new species.
A team of researchers visited a village in Xiengkhouang Province in 2023 as part of a survey project “targeting amphibians and reptiles,” according to a study published Aug. 27 in the peer-reviewed journal Zootaxa. The province sat within the larger “Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot, one of the most biologically rich yet underexplored regions in the world.”
During their nighttime surveys, researchers found three unfamiliar-looking lizards “on garden vegetation and houses,” the study said. Intrigued, they took a closer look at the animals, analyzed their DNA and realized they’d discovered a new species: Hemiphyllodactylus xiengkhouangensis, or the Xiengkhouang slender gecko.
Xiengkhouang slender geckos can reach about 3 inches in length, the study said. They have “elongate” bodies with “short and robust” limbs. Their “triangularly shaped” heads have “large,” “coppery brown” eyes.
Males and females of the new species varied in coloring, but both had “pale-yellow” bellies and “distinctly orange” undersides of their tails, researchers said and photos show.
Male Xiengkhouang slender geckos were generally brown and “heavily mottled with darker markings,” the study said. One male was “darker brown with a more faded pattern” than the other.
The female Xiengkhouang slender gecko was pinkish-white, its pattern “faded or nearly absent,” researchers said. It also had two externally visible eggs in its belly.
Much about the new species's lifestyle and behavior remains unknown. The geckos were found at a village at night and “face threats from habitat fragmentation and loss,” the study said.
Researchers said they named the new species after Xiengkhouang Province where it was first discovered and, so far, the only place where it has been found. Xiengkhouang Province is in northeastern Laos and along the border with Vietnam.
The new species was identified by its scale pattern, coloring, body proportions and other subtle physical features, the study said. DNA analysis found the new species had at least 11% genetic divergence from related gecko species.
The research team included Vinh Quang Luu, Saly Sitthivong, Tuoi Thi Hoang, Hong Bich Ha, Huan Van Ha, Santi Xayyasith, Thomas Ziegler and L. Lee Grismer.
The team also discovered a new species of gecko in Vietnam: the Yenchau slender gecko.
This story was originally published August 28, 2025 at 12:21 PM with the headline "Slender creature with two visible eggs found in Laos village. It’s a new species."
