From phone cases to bed sheets, Vincent Van Gogh‘s Starry Night (1889) has been replicated endlessly since it was first painted at the end of the 19th century. But as a first, a new species of blue gecko was recently named after the Dutch artist himself because of its peculiar skin color that resembles that dreamy night sky that Van Gogh captured many moons ago.
Cnemaspis vangoghi (“Van Gogh’s Starry dwarf gecko”), as it’s been named, measures roughly one-and-a-half inches and was first spotted in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu in 2022 by a team of scientists affiliated with the Thackeray Wildlife Foundation. The group, led by researcher Akshay Khandekar, published its findings in the scientific journal, ZooKeys, noting that only the male Cnemaspis vangoghi looks like Starry Night due to a sexual dimorphism that results in greyish-blue dots across its body and head, as well as a hint of yellow that fades from its neck down.
The Van Gogh gecko was discovered alongside Cnemaspis sathuragiriensis, which resembles a similar color pattern and was named after Sathuragiri Hills. “Tamil Nadu is an exceptionally biodiverse state and we expect to name well over 50 new species of lizards by the time we are done [with our expeditions],” said Khandekar in a statement.
