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| Olive Tree Skink, Dasia olivacea Gray, 1838. Photographed in Khao Luang National Park, Thailand. This highly arboreal skink was found in the rafters of a building. Body lengths to 115 mm, total length to 270 mm. Females lay clutches of 6-14 eggs. It ranges from southern Thailand and Myanmar southward through the Malayan Peninsula to Singapore, Borneo, and Java. It also occurs in the Philippines. |
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| The Mountain Skin, Plestiodon callicephalus Bocourt, 1879. Photographed in the Pajarito Mountains, Arizona. Ranges from Arizona and New Mexico into Mexico. Some populations are viviparous, others oviparous. Adults may reach 71 mm. Habitats used include oak and pine forests. Some authors have considered this skin a race of P. tetragrammus. For more photos and skinks in the genus Plestiodon, click here or on the photo. |
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| Orange Throated Skink, Eutropis macularia quadrifasciata (Taylor and Elebel, 1958). Captive specimen. The subspecies is known from southern Thailand. This lizard has also been placed in the genus Eumeces. |
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| Lankascincus fallax(Peters,1860). Photographed in Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. This lizard is endemic to Sri Lanka. |
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| Lankascincus sp. Photographed in a dry forest at Giratale, Sri Lanka. |
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| Yellow Striped Tree Skink, Lipinia vittigera (Boulenger 1894). Photographed in the Danum Valley, Sabah, Island of Borneo. Adults may reach 42 mm in body length, and a total length of 100 mm. It ranges from Myanmar and Thailand east to Vietnam and south to Singapore and Borneo. |
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| Mabuya bistriata (Spix, 1825). The distribution of this species is poorly understood because it has been confused with other species, it could be something like this: Brazil (Amazonas, E Para, Amapa, Rio de Janeiro), French Guiana, Bolivia (Beni, La Paz, Pando, Santa Cruz), Peru, Colombia ?, Tobago ?; Jamaica. Note that M. bistriata has been long confused with M. nigropunctatus. |
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| Many Lined Skink, Mabuya multifasciata (Kuhl, 1820). Photographed in Thung Salaeng Luang National Park, Phistsanulok Province, Thailand. This lizard was under a large boulder next to a river. Adults reach 350 mm in total length. Females are viviparous and produce litters of 5-10 young. This species complex ranges from India, southern China, Myanmar, Thailand and Indochina through Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, the islands of Indonesia, and the Philippines. |
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| Black Spotted Skink, Mabuya nigropunctata (Spix, 1825). Photographed in Trinidad. The identity of the Trinidad and Tobago populations of Mabuya have been confused for some time. See: Miralles, et al. 2005. Zoosystema 27: 825-837. It is the most common skink in the Guyana-Amazonian region and it occurs on Trinidad and Tobago. |
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The African Red-Sided Skink, Mochlus fernandi (Burton, 1836). A captive specimen. It inhabits Guinea, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire), Angola, Uganda, Gabon, Sierra Leone, Burundi, Rwanda, and Kenya. It has also been placed in the genera Riopa and Lygosoma. |
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| Ground Skink, Scincella lateralis (Say, 1823). Photographed in Stone County, Mississippi. The Ground Skink is a dwarf, of woodland habitats as well as forest edge situations from Maryland to Kansas and south to Texas, and Coahuila, Mexico. It lives in leaf litter, but it may also enter water to escape predators. Honda et al. (2003. Genes and Genetic Systematics 78:71-80) found that this lizard is more closely related to Sphenomorphus cherriei than to the Old World Scincella. |
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The Sandfish, Scincus scincus Linnaeus, 1758. Range: in Africa from Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, SE Libya, and Egypt; southward to northward to Senegal, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and northward to Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, and Iran. It may also have populations in the Western Sahara, and Mauritania. The Sandfish uses aeolian sands, but can colonizes compact soils in areas where the soil is soft. Its habitat may be completely lacking vegetation or it may have some vegetative cover. Adults attain a body length of 140 mm, and have a tail that is about 60% of the SVL. Males tend to be larger than females and have bigger heads. The sandfish is well adapted for sand swimming. Its highly polished, smooth scales, its flatted snout, countersunk jaw (middle photo), and its flattened digits with a fringe all work to reduce friction and allow the lizard to propel itself through the loose soil. Hetherington, T. E., (1989 Animal Behaviour. Vol 37(2), Feb 1989, 290-297) experimentally demonstrated that the sandfish detects insects by the vibrations they create on the sand. The lizard would frequently walk on the surface of the sand and plunge its head into the substrate to detect vibrations created by its prey (Bottom photo). However, in nature this skink appears to swim around the base of plants and take insects and other arthropods off the surface. They may also eat small lizards on occasion. Mating has been reported form May-July, and females deposit about 6 eggs in June-July. |
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| Sabah Skink, Sphenomorphus sabanus Inger, 1958. Photographed in the Danum Valley, Sabah, Malaysia (Island of Borneo). This is a leaf litter dwelling skink that is a Borneo endemic. It is common in forests and forest edge habitats. Adults may reach 180 mm in total length. This species may use the cryptic behavior of mimicking a twig to escape predation. |
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Blue Tongue Skink (Tiliqua scincoides, Family Scincidae). The Blue Tongue Skink inhabits open woodlands, forest-edge situations and semi-deserts in Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea. The common name is derived from the distinctive blue tongue that is used in its defense display. When disturbed it gapes its mouth, sticks out its tongue and inflates its body, hissing loudly. This is one of the largest skinks, with adults reaching a body length of 400 mm. They use the burrows of other animals for refuge as well as rock crevices and hollow logs. Blue Tongues are omnivorous, feeding on fruits and small animals. Their teeth are large with flat surfaces for crushing. This is a live-bearing species, with males guarding females for up to 25 days after copulation. Litters of 10-20 young are born after 100 days of gestation. Females form a placenta with the young to provide nourishment during development. The neonates are 130-140 mm at birth. Parental care is unknown after the young are born. Sexual maturity is reached in three years. |
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Shingleback Skink or Sleepy Lizard, Tiliaqua rugosa (Gray, 1825). A captive photographed in Australia. Adults are in the 300-400 mm ranges. It is endemic to southern Australia and inhabits semiarid grasslands and woodlands that typically have dry summers and falls, and cool winters and springs. They may live for 35 years. Litters of 1-2 young are born in March or April. Male-female pairs form for at least one breeding season. A placenta is used during a 5 month gestation period. This lizard has also been placed in the genus Trachydosaurus. |
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| Berdmore's Skink, Tropidophorus berdmorei (Blyth, 1853). Photographed in Thailand. Body lengths up to 85 mm, total length up to 190 mm. Ranges from Myanmar east through Indochina to southern China. It uses small mountain streams in forests where it hunts aquatic insects and crustaceans. Females carry up to 12 eggs until the embryos are fully formed, after the eggs are laid the young hatch immediately. |
| The family Scincidae has a worldwide distribution and contains about 1400 species. Most are terrestrial and fossorial but there are arboreal (Corucia) and aquatic (Tropidophorus) species. Many desert species are sand swimmers. Most are diurnal, with some being nocturnal or crepuscular. Skinks are usually small (30-60 mm) or moderate (60-120 mm) in body size. A few skinks (Tiliqua and Corucia) are large and exceed 300 mm in body length. More than half (55%) of all species lay small (2-6) clutches of eggs, while the remaining species are viviparous. Parental care ranges from adults guarding the eggs to abandoning them when they are laid. And some species show communally nesting behavior. Limb reduction has occurred more than 30 times within skinks (Greer, 1991, Journal of Herpetology 21:267-276). Skinks have osteoderms, small bones that lie just under the scales giving skinks a hard, slippery body that makes it difficult for predators to grip them. Skinks also have tail autotomy, thus most species are able to escape predators by dropping their tail. Skink tails, particularly juvenile skink tails, are often brightly colored and may serve to distract predators. Currently these lizards are being investigated with molecular techniques and the current taxonomy and systematics can be expected to change. |