 Range in California: Red
Green: Coronado Skink
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Adult, Siskiyou County |
Adult, Modoc County |
Adult, Glenn County |
Juvenile, Contra Costa County |
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Adult, Santa Clara County |
Adult showing orange breeding color, February, Santa Clara County |
Juvenile, Napa County |
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Adult, Humboldt County |
Adult with long intact tail found basking on streamside rocks in Trinity County |
Underside of an adult, San Bernardino County, showing orange breeding coloring |
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Adult, San Luis Obispo County |
Breeding adult, San Luis
Obispo County |
Note that the dark stripes on the sides of the tail on the Western Skink extend far onto the tail unlike the stripes on juvenile Gilbert's Skinks. Compare |
Adult, Contra Costa County |
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Adult with breeding colors, Del Norte County © Alan Barron |
Adult, Sutter Buttes, Sutter County.
© Jackson Shedd.
Specimen courtesy of Eric Olson. |
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Comparison of juvenile skinks:
Top: P. s. skiltonianus - Modoc County
Bottom: P. gilberti - Kings County
© Patrick Briggs
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Habitat |
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Mixed coniferous forest habitat, Santa Clara County
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Rocky habitat along ridgeline in chaparral/grassland, Contra Costa County |
Riparian woodland/grassland Habitat, Contra Costa County |
Rocky mixed woodland montane Habitat, Napa County
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Habitat, coastal mixed woodlands/grasslands Monterey County
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Habitat, forest clearing, Humboldt County |
Mixed woodland/grassland habitat next to a reservoir, Contra Costa County |
Streamside habitat in coniferous forest, Mendocino County (found wintering under bark on downed tree.) |
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Montane habitat, 6,200 ft., San Bernardino County |
Habitat, 1,100 ft. Fresno County. |
Habitat, 2,600 ft., Trinity County |
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Sandy coastal habitat,
San Luis Obispo County |
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Short Videos |
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A skink is found under a rock. It bites hard, refusing to let go, then finally runs through dry grass with typical serpentine motion.
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A juvenile skink loses its blue tail, which writhes around on the ground. This is a defensive measure used to distract the predator which caused the tail to become detached from the rest of the lizard as it tries to escape. |
In this video you can see how the blue tail on a juvenile skink stands out when the lizard moves, especially when it uses its stripes to blend into the vegetation. A predator is more likely to go for the tail, which can detach without hurting the lizard. |
A big adult skink found under a rock in winter in Contra Costa County. |
| Description |
Size |
| 2 1/8 - 3 2/5 inches long from snout to vent (5.4 - 8.6 cm) and aproximately 7.5 inches in total length. |
| Appearance |
A small skink with a slim body, small head, thick neck, small legs, and a smooth, shiny body with cycloid scales.
Striped with 3 dark brown and light cream stripes: A wide dark brown stripe, edged with black, extends from the nose to the tail down the middle of the back, bordered by two pale stripes which extend from the nose over the eye to the tail. Two more very dark stripes extend down each side through the eyes, to the tail, where they extend well out onto the tail. Two more pale stripes extend below these dark side stripes. The underside is pale or gray.
The tail is gray or dull blue on older adults, and bright blue on juveniles. Younger adults often retain some of the bright blue coloring. The stripes on juveniles are more highly contrasted than on adults.
During the breeding season, adults develop reddish orange coloring on the side of head, chin, on the tail, and sometimes the sides. |
| Characteristics of Subspecies of Plestiodon skiltonianus |
P. s. interparietalis
Interparietal enclosed by the parietals in 80 per cent of the population. Stripes of the body pattern extended onto anterior half or more of tail.
P. s. skiltonianus
Interparietal rarely enclosed by the parietals. Usually less than 10 per cent even in Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties; and/or stripes of body pattern not extended on more than the base of the tail.
Dorsolateral stripe narrow not occupying more than half of either the second or third scale rows, diameter of stripe noticeably less than half the width of the dark dorsal interspace. Dark stripe below the lateral light stripe usuallly present. Diameter of the dorsolateral stripe usually less than the length of the first nuchal.
P. s. utahensis
Dorsolateral stripe occupying more than half of the second scale row and being nearly one half the diameter of the dark dorsal interspace. Dark stripe below lateral light stripe rarely present. Diameter of the dorsolateral stripe usually greater than the length of the first nuchal.
From:
Tanner, Wilmer W.Tanner, Wilmer W. "A Taxonomic and Ecological Study of the Western Skink (Eumeces skiltoniaus.) The Great Basin Naturalist Vol. XVII. 1957, pp. 59 - 94.) The Great Basin Naturalist Vol. XVII. 1957, pp. 59 - 94.
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| Behavior |
Diurnal, but secretive and not typically seen active. Occasionally seen foraging in leaf litter. More commonly found underneath bark and surface objects, especially rocks, where it lives in extensive burrows. Inactive in cold weather.
The tail is easily broken off. When detached, it writhes back and forth to distract a predator while the lizard escapes. The lizard will grow a new tail. The bright blue coloring on the tail of a juvenile skink tends to distract a predator from the main body of the lizard. Sometimes only the blue tail can be seen as the lizard rushes through grass or leaves. I have received several requests to identify a very small blue snake seen wriggling along, for which the only explanation is that the blue snake was actually the tail of a juvenile skink and the main body of the lizard was not observed. |
| Diet |
| Insects, and other small invertebrates, especially spiders and sow bugs. |
| Reproduction |
| Lays 2 - 10 eggs in June and July which hatch in late July and August. Females guard their eggs until they hatch. |
| Range |
In California, this subspecies is found throughout the north, and in the northern Sierra Nevada and foothills, in the north and south coast mountain ranges, extending south to the southern California coast where P. s. interparietalis takes over. Also found in the southern Sierra Nevada on the Kern Plateau, the Greenhorn and Piute mountains, and east of the Sierra Nevada in isoloated locations. Also present on Santa Catalina Island. Not present in the southern deserts and much of the central valleys.
The species Plestiodon skiltonianus ranges beyond California north into inland British Columbia, and east into Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and northcentral Arizona, and south to the southern tip of Baja California.
From sea level up to around 8,300 ft. (2,530 meters). |
| Habitat |
| Grassland, woodlands, pine forests, sagebrush, chaparral, especially in open sunny areas such as clearings and the edges of creeks and rivers. Prefers rocky areas near streams with lots of vegetation. Also found in areas away from water. |
| Taxonomic Notes |
Currently, several subspecies of Eumeces skiltonianus are recognized, including P. s. utahensis, and P. s. interparietalis. Some taxonomists do not recognize the southern California subspecies P. s. interparietalis. They group it with P. s. skiltonianus.
Brandley et al. (2005 Syst. Biol. 54:373-390) replaced Eumeces with Plestiodon.
The Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles has adopted the use of Plestiodon in the sixth edition of their Scientific and Standard English Names of Amphibians and Reptiles of North America north of Mexico list.
Jonathan Q. Richmond, and Tod W. Reeder, in their 2002 paper * list one specimem from the San Diego State University collection (SDSU 3816) utahensis CA, Inyo Co., Independence Creek at Gray’s Meadow campsite. 36 47.2N, 118 15.2W) that comes from an area fairly far south of the Nevada border on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains just east of Independence as E. s. utahensis, Great Basin Skink. The Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at UC Berkeley has specimens of P. skiltionianus (with no subspecies indicated) from Inyo County including Gray's Meadow and another location east of Independence the White Mountains, and the White Mountains. If the SDSU specimen identification is correct, it is possible that this subspecies ranges in an isolated region east of Independence and in the White Mountains.
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| Conservation Issues (Conservation Status) |
| None. |
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Taxonomy |
| Family |
Scincidae |
Skinks |
| Genus |
Plestiodon (formerly Eumeces) |
Toothy Skinks |
| Species |
skiltonianus |
Western Skink |
Subspecies
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skitonianus |
Skilton's Skink |
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Original Description |
Eumeces skiltonianus - (Baird and Girard, 1852) - Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Vol. 6, p. 69
from Original Description Citations for the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America © Ellin Beltz
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Meaning of the Scientific Name |
(Eumeces - Greek - eu- good or nice and mekos length or height)
Plestiodon = ?
skiltonianus - honors Skilton, Avery J.
from Scientific and Common Names of the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America - Explained © Ellin Beltz
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Alternate Names |
Western Skink
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Related or Similar California Lizards |
P. g. cancellosus - Variegated Skink
P. g. gilberti - Greater Brown Skink
P. g. placerensis - Northern Brown Skink
P. g. rubricaudatus - Western Red-tailed Skink
P. s. interparietalis - Coronado Skink
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More Information and References |
Natureserve Explorer
California Dept. of Fish and Game
Stebbins, Robert C. A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians. 3rd Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003.
Behler, John L., and F. Wayne King. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians. Alfred A. Knopf, 1992.
Powell, Robert., Joseph T. Collins, and Errol D. Hooper Jr. A Key to Amphibians and Reptiles of the Continental United States and Canada. The University Press of Kansas, 1998.
Bartlett, R. D. & Patricia P. Bartlett. Guide and Reference to the Turtles and Lizards of Western North America (North of Mexico) and Hawaii. University Press of Florida, 2009.
Jones, Lawrence, Rob Lovich, editors. Lizards of the American Southwest: A Photographic Field Guide. Rio Nuevo Publishers, 2009.
Smith, Hobart M. Handbook of Lizards, Lizards of the United States and of Canada. Cornell University Press, 1946.
Brown et. al. Reptiles of Washington and Oregon. Seattle Audubon Society,1995.
Nussbaum, R. A., E. D. Brodie Jr., and R. M. Storm. Amphibians and Reptiles of the Pacific Northwest. Moscow,
Idaho: University Press of Idaho, 1983.
St. John, Alan D. Reptiles of the Northwest: Alaska to California; Rockies to the Coast. Lone Pine Publishing, 2002.
Lemm, Jeffrey. Field Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles of the San Diego Region (California Natural History Guides). University of California Press, 2006.
* Jonathan Q. Richmond, and Tod W. Reeder. EVIDENCE FOR PARALLEL ECOLOGICAL SPECIATION IN SCINCID LIZARDS OF THE EUMECES SKILTONIANUS SPECIES GROUP (SQUAMATA: SCINCIDAE) Evolution, 56(7), 2002, pp. 1498–1513
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The following status listings come from the Special Animals List which is published several times each year by the California Department of Fish and Game.
This animal is not included on the Special Animals List, which indicates that there are no significant conservation concerns for it in California.
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Organization
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Status Listing
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| U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) |
None |
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| California Endangered Species Act (CESA) |
None |
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| California Department of Fish and Game |
None |
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| Bureau of Land Management |
None |
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| USDA Forest Service |
None |
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| Natureserve Global Conservation Status Ranks |
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World Conservation Union - IUCN Red List
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