Gecko: New species of flying lizard discovered in India

This species of gecko known as Gekko mizoramensis has been found in India for the first time

This cheeky chappy is a new species of flying gecko that's been found in India for the first time.

It was found along the Indo-Myanmar border by a team of researchers from Mizoram University and the Max Planck Institute for Biology.

Its scientific name is Gekko mizoramensis but it has been nicknamed parachute gecko because of the way it can glide through the air.

Similar species of gecko have already been found in other places in South Asia like Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, and Cambodia.

This is a Tokay gecko. You can see how its body doesn't have flaps to help it glide through the air like a parachute gecko.

Parachute geckos can glide from tree to tree using flaps of skin on their bodies.

Like this new species, they tend to grow to around 20cm in length and are often coloured in a way that makes them camouflaged in their environment.

The researchers involved had to catch them by hand and found they were most active just before night time while they were looking for bugs to feast on.

Scientists say that only discovering this species now shows how poorly biodiversity in the region - meaning the range of different types of species in a certain area - has been recorded and that more research needs to be done.