# Just bought pair o' belly-to-belly spreadeagled dried bat lizards on a stick. What are they? \[pix\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 5, 2015, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-bought-pair-o-belly-to-belly-spreadeagled-dried-bat-lizards-on-a-stick-what-are-they-pix/729958 "2015-09-05T00:04:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-bought-pair-o-belly-to-belly-spreadeagled-dried-bat-lizards-on-a-stick-what-are-they-pix/729958/1 "2015-09-05T00:04:15Z")
See subject: [![](https://i.imgur.com/NXJtdEm.jpg) ](https://i.imgur.com/NXJtdEm.jpg) Went to Chinatown to buy mushrooms at a specialty dried everything store, saw a basket of them, and at $6.80 a stick I couldn’t say no. What is it/are they? What do you do with it, besides leave it on the dining room table for your wife to find it when she comes home from shul? ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-bought-pair-o-belly-to-belly-spreadeagled-dried-bat-lizards-on-a-stick-what-are-they-pix/729958/2 "2015-09-05T01:11:02Z")
Save them for about 57 days? Are they even kosher? Because if they’re not, this is why the dietary laws were written. However, that is a gorgeous tomato. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-bought-pair-o-belly-to-belly-spreadeagled-dried-bat-lizards-on-a-stick-what-are-they-pix/729958/3 "2015-09-05T01:37:00Z")
As usual, following GQ tradition, an OP was posted with potential Talmudic discussion on Friday night. Just going to have to wait… ---
**Author:** ![bb49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b38774/32.png) [@bb49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bb49)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-bought-pair-o-belly-to-belly-spreadeagled-dried-bat-lizards-on-a-stick-what-are-they-pix/729958/4 "2015-09-05T01:44:48Z")
Why did you buy them? Impulse? They might go well with a peanut sauce. ---
**Author:** ![Jesta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Jesta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jesta)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-bought-pair-o-belly-to-belly-spreadeagled-dried-bat-lizards-on-a-stick-what-are-they-pix/729958/5 "2015-09-05T01:54:14Z")
I would have thought it was prep for these… “BBQ bat on a stick. One of these little buggers gave me my worst case of feverish food poisoning to date. I think I’ll pass next time.” Sauce: [http://blogs.bootsnall.com/bucho\_ky/vagabonding-food.html](http://blogs.bootsnall.com/bucho_ky/vagabonding-food.html) Just change the d to an f, and search again. (Fried, not dried) ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-bought-pair-o-belly-to-belly-spreadeagled-dried-bat-lizards-on-a-stick-what-are-they-pix/729958/6 "2015-09-05T02:26:40Z")
You could use them as home decor to bolster your image as the “neighborhood kook”? I mean, if that’s an image you’re trying to establish. You may not be. IDK. 😌 ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-bought-pair-o-belly-to-belly-spreadeagled-dried-bat-lizards-on-a-stick-what-are-they-pix/729958/7 "2015-09-05T02:39:05Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > What is it/are they? What do you do with it, besides leave it on the dining room table for your wife to find it when she comes home from shul? It’s a [Tokay Gecko](http://www.reptilesncritters.com/images/large/tokay-gecko_3.jpg). According to [this article,](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1329563/The-Chinese-supermarket-little-dried-lizard-pep-love-life-t-buy-turtle-barcode-reader-s-broken.html) they are sold at the medicine counter as an aphrodisiac. So better eat it quick before your wife comes home. Here’s more about the use of Tokay Geckos from [a site on Chinese medicine.](http://www.chineseherbshealing.com/tokay-gecko/) (Of course, none of the supposed treatments have been proven effective.) I still think you should eat it. ---
**Author:** ![Ornery\_Bob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/da6949/32.png) [@Ornery\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ornery_Bob)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-bought-pair-o-belly-to-belly-spreadeagled-dried-bat-lizards-on-a-stick-what-are-they-pix/729958/8 "2015-09-05T02:40:32Z")
Dried gecko is my guess. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-bought-pair-o-belly-to-belly-spreadeagled-dried-bat-lizards-on-a-stick-what-are-they-pix/729958/9 "2015-09-05T02:59:15Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > It’s a [Tokay Gecko](http://www.reptilesncritters.com/images/large/tokay-gecko_3.jpg). According to [this article,](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1329563/The-Chinese-supermarket-little-dried-lizard-pep-love-life-t-buy-turtle-barcode-reader-s-broken.html) they are sold at the medicine counter as an aphrodisiac. So better eat it quick before your wife comes home. > > Here’s more about the use of Tokay Geckos from [a site on Chinese medicine.](http://www.chineseherbshealing.com/tokay-gecko/) (Of course, none of the supposed treatments have been proven effective.) > > I still think you should eat it. You rock! ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-bought-pair-o-belly-to-belly-spreadeagled-dried-bat-lizards-on-a-stick-what-are-they-pix/729958/10 "2015-09-05T03:10:32Z")
Yep, dried geckos. I accidentally ordered them once when I was trying to order kudzu root. Dried geckos are _Ge Jie_, and kudzu root is _Ge Gen_. Brain fart. (Guess I should have ordered some _Yin Xing Ye_.) Kept them around the office for a while as mascots, until my boss got disgusted and threw them out. No sense of humor, that one. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-bought-pair-o-belly-to-belly-spreadeagled-dried-bat-lizards-on-a-stick-what-are-they-pix/729958/11 "2015-09-05T06:03:30Z")
Moved them to kitchen. Hasn’t seen them yet. Moved them to the kitchen so we could eat. [[Album] Gecko Duck Mushroom ![](https://i.imgur.com/4pW3FZf.jpeg?fb "Gecko Duck Mushroom") ](https://imgur.com/a/5UKI3) You know, a 20-something was behind the register when I bought my stuff, she spoke not a syllable of English, but she was so amused when I sign languages "Huh? Good? (While pointing to my mouth, holding the stick sort of over it like a shishkebab, and then rubbing my tummy with Mmm Mmm sounds. What a maroon… The gecko is so beautiful when it’s not dried spreadeagled and nailed to a stick. - off to see if geckos are lizards or what \* ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-bought-pair-o-belly-to-belly-spreadeagled-dried-bat-lizards-on-a-stick-what-are-they-pix/729958/12 "2015-09-05T06:50:17Z")
Are they flayed and the skin spread out, or do they have gliding skin? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-bought-pair-o-belly-to-belly-spreadeagled-dried-bat-lizards-on-a-stick-what-are-they-pix/729958/13 "2015-09-05T07:22:49Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > The gecko is so beautiful when it’s not dried spreadeagled and nailed to a stick. Yep. That live one in the picture you posted looks A-tokay to me. > [@](#): > > - off to see if geckos are lizards or what \* They’re reptiles and lizards, yes. It might be more useful to say they’re sauropsids and squamates, because that better reflects the extended family tree which connects them to all other life on Earth and demonstrates common descent. > **[Sauropsida](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauropsida)** > > Sauropsida (Greek for "lizard faces") is a clade of amniotes, broadly equivalent to the class Reptilia, though typically used in a broader sense to also include extinct stem-group relatives of modern reptiles and birds (which, as theropod dinosaurs, are nested within reptiles as more closely related to crocodilians than to lizards or turtles). The most popular definition states that Sauropsida is the sibling taxon to Synapsida, the other clade of amniotes which includes mammals as its only mod > **[Squamata](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squamata)** > > Squamata (/skwæˈmeɪtə/, Latin squamatus, 'scaly, having scales') is the largest order of reptiles, comprising lizards and snakes. With over 12,162 species, it is also the second-largest order of extant (living) vertebrates, after the perciform fish. Squamates are distinguished by their skins, which bear horny scales or shields, and must periodically engage in molting. They also possess movable quadrate bones, making possible movement of the upper jaw relative to the neurocranium. This is parti... ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-bought-pair-o-belly-to-belly-spreadeagled-dried-bat-lizards-on-a-stick-what-are-they-pix/729958/14 "2015-09-05T07:31:20Z")
> [@grude](#): > > Are they flayed and the skin spread out, or do they have gliding skin? They are eviscerated and then spread out. They don’t have gliding skin like the [flying dragon _Draco volans._](http://d3lp4xedbqa8a5.cloudfront.net/s3/digital-cougar-assets/AusGeo/2014/05/29/43574/dragon-lizard-draco-volans.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-bought-pair-o-belly-to-belly-spreadeagled-dried-bat-lizards-on-a-stick-what-are-they-pix/729958/15 "2015-09-05T10:07:07Z")
Might as well bite them before they can [bite you](http://www.animalspot.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Tokay-Gecko-Bite.jpg). They’re hardly dangerous, but for sheer pugnacity ounce-for-ounce nothing tops a [Tokay](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4DkbqoQn63Y/TgROxRwy9mI/AAAAAAAAD7g/y5oDRwrTAUk/s1600/Gekko+gecko-eating+bird.jpg). I’ve been chomped on by plenty of lizards without twitching an eyebrow, but I admit Tokay Geckos intimidate me just a tad - they always seem to be spoiling for a fight ;). ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-bought-pair-o-belly-to-belly-spreadeagled-dried-bat-lizards-on-a-stick-what-are-they-pix/729958/16 "2015-09-05T10:24:39Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > Might as well bite them before they can [bite you](http://www.animalspot.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Tokay-Gecko-Bite.jpg). They’re hardly dangerous, but for sheer pugnacity ounce-for-ounce nothing tops a [Tokay](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4DkbqoQn63Y/TgROxRwy9mI/AAAAAAAAD7g/y5oDRwrTAUk/s1600/Gekko+gecko-eating+bird.jpg). I’ve been chomped on by plenty of lizards without twitching an eyebrow, but I admit Tokay Geckos intimidate me just a tad - they always seem to be spoiling for a fight ;). Yikes. I see those every now and then here. I thought they were cute… not any more. ---
**Author:** ![Renee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/renee/32/287_2.png) [@Renee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renee)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-bought-pair-o-belly-to-belly-spreadeagled-dried-bat-lizards-on-a-stick-what-are-they-pix/729958/17 "2015-09-05T13:22:58Z")
A bouquet of them would be great for Halloween. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-bought-pair-o-belly-to-belly-spreadeagled-dried-bat-lizards-on-a-stick-what-are-they-pix/729958/18 "2015-09-05T14:16:09Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Yep. That live one in the picture you posted looks A-tokay to me… 🙂 But credit goes to **Colibri** for the ID/photo. I don’t think there’s an unknown critter posted here yet he hasn’t identified. He’s the Shazam of the animal kingdom. Tokay is the name (region?) of the famous sweet wine of Hungary–the perfect elixir. God that bird picture is horrible. More than many other animal takedowns I’ve seen before. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-bought-pair-o-belly-to-belly-spreadeagled-dried-bat-lizards-on-a-stick-what-are-they-pix/729958/19 "2015-09-05T14:24:10Z")
Best party favor ever. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-bought-pair-o-belly-to-belly-spreadeagled-dried-bat-lizards-on-a-stick-what-are-they-pix/729958/20 "2015-09-05T14:25:02Z")
_“Don’t tokay that bat, my friend, pass it over to me…”_ [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-bought-pair-o-belly-to-belly-spreadeagled-dried-bat-lizards-on-a-stick-what-are-they-pix/729958.md?page=2)