Marbled leaf-toed gecko

Afrogecko porphyreus has a mottled, greyish body, a long tail and sometimes a pale stripe along its back. However, its colouration varies from almost black-and-buff patterning to smudged shades of buff. It is an adaptable little forager, hiding under debris, beneath bark, among rocks, and even in city houses.

These geckos eat large numbers of small insects, so a population of them living on one's property serves as a natural form of pest-control. Their diet is an array of invertebrates, including feeder insects. Domestic cats commonly kill large numbers of these lizards, sometimes exterminating them in a local area. They also are preyed upon by species of spiders in the genus Palystes, which may be more effective gecko predators than cats.^{[citation needed]}

As in many similar gecko species, one of their major defences is autotomy of their tails. In some populations nearly all mature specimens have tails that have either regenerated or are in the process of regeneration.

This gecko occurs commonly in the southern parts of South Africa, from Cape Town (where it now inhabits suburban gardens) eastwards as far as the Eastern Cape.

A. porphyreus are not aggressive or territorial and several of them will often live together in a single retreat. These sociable lizards will even share nests, in which several females will lay their eggs.