Southeastern Five-Lined Skink (Plestiodon inexpectatus)
Description: As their common name suggests, southeastern five-lined skinks have five characteristic narrow stripes along their bodies that become lighter with age. The middle stripe tends to be narrower than the others, and the dark areas between stripes are black in young skinks but become brown with age. A similar lizard, the common five-lined skink (Plestiodon fasciatus), is slightly smaller than the southeastern five-lined skink and has broader stripes. However, it is difficult to discriminate between these two species on the basis of physical appearance. Young southeastern five-lined skinks have a bright blue or purplish tail, especially towards the tip. Also, stripes become a bright reddish orange towards the head. Juvenile coloration may persist into adulthood, giving the head of the animal an altogether orange-brown appearance.
Habitat: Southeastern five-lined skinks are common inhabitants of wooded areas of the southeastern United States. They are commonly found on small islands off the southeastern coast even in the absence of fresh water and vegetation.
Range: This species occurs widely in the southeastern United States. Its geographic range extends from southern Maryland to the Florida Keys, and west to Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and eastern Louisiana, avoiding much of the Appalachian Mountains.
Diet: Like other skinks of the genus Plestiodon, they feed primarily on insects, preferring larger prey such as grasshoppers.
Reproduction: Southeastern five-lined skinks are oviparous; the clutch size varies from 6 to 12, with the number of eggs diminishing with higher latitudes. The female broods the eggs and protects them from predators, including other skinks. The hatchlings appear about one month after the eggs have been laid near the beginning of summer.
Status: Listed as Least Concern in view of its wide distribution, tolerance of a degree of habitat modification, presumed large population, and because it is unlikely to be declining fast enough to qualify for listing in a more threatened category.
»» Kingdom: Animalia - Animals
»» Phylum: Chordata - Chordates
»» Subphylum: Vertebrata - Vertebrates
»» Class: Reptilia - Reptiles
»» Order: Squamata - Lizards
»» Family: Scincidae - Skinks
»» Genus: Plestiodon
»» Species: Plestiodon inexpectatus - Southeastern Five-Lined Skink
»» Subspecies: None
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Plestiodon inexpectatus", 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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