Mole Skink (Plestiodon egregius)
Description: This is a fairly small species of lizard (adults from 34 to 62 mm snout-vent length; females average 4.5 mm longer than males). The limbs are reduced, the primary temporal is lacking, and the ear opening is partially closed. There are usually three supraoculars. Scale rows at midbody number 18 to 24. Both head and body lack a median light stripe. Sexually active males are suffused with yellow, orange, or reddish-orange on the lips, chin, sides of neck, lower sides of the body, and occasionally on the ventrum.
Habitat: Habitats include coastal dunes, sand pine scrub, longleaf pine-turkey oak woods, and xeric hammocks. This lizard is mostly fossorial; often under surface litter, also in pocket gopher burrows and mounds, burrowing beetle mounds; it occurs in greatest numbers where soil is sandy or gravelly and dry. It also occurs under rocks and tidal wrack on beaches. Eggs are laid in a cavity dug in sandy soil, several inches to 6 feet below the surface.
Range: The geographic range encompasses Florida, the Coastal Plain of Georgia, and a portion of the Coastal Plain and adjacent provinces of Alabama east of the Black Warrior and Tombigbee rivers.
Found in these States:
AL |
FL |
GA
Diet: Eats crickets, spiders, and other small arthropods.
Reproduction: Mole skinks reach sexual maturity after one year. They mate in winter; the female lays three to seven eggs in spring in a shallow nest cavity less than 12 inches below the surface. The eggs incubate for 31 to 51 days, during which time the female tends the nest.
Status: Listed as Least Concern because overall the extent of occurrence, area of occupancy, number of subpopulations, and population size are fairly large and probably have not declined at a rate that would qualify the species for any of the threatened categories.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Plestiodon egregius", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0. Content may have been omitted from the original, but no content has been changed or extended.
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