The toes have neither pads nor expanded tips; instead they have well-developed claws and they are fringed with comb-like scales that assist in rapid motion over sand, and perhaps in digging.

As in most geckos, the tail commonly is swollen with fat stores, but not as much so as most species, such as say, in the genera Chondrodactylus and Pachydactylus.

The colour ranges from off-white or mottled yellow to chestnut brown, with irregular blotches and speckles.

The ventral scales are generally white, but males of all species and females of Ptenopus carpi have yellow throats.

During summer males sit at the mouths of their burrows in the dusk and on overcast days, and with only their heads showing, they call "kek-kek-kek" for hours on end.

At night after rain showers, such as in the weather in which termites undertake their nuptial flights, barking geckos commonly leave their burrows to hunt actively for prey.

At other times of the year, the geckos are mainly ambush predators, awaiting prey at the burrow entrance and sallying forth opportunistically.

Ptenopus carpi occurs only in the Namib Desert from the Kuiseb River northwards to about opposite Etosha.