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McCoy's Skink

Nannoscincus maccoyi

Description:

An unusual skink I haven't seen before. Black to the eye but the flash has pulled colour out revealing tints of blue. Some red noticed near the top of the tail. Small limbs. A shorter, rounded head and face compared to our other 4 local species. One obvious feature is a yellow belly. Very different to one I found last year which had a very long tail and moved more like a snake. No ear openings? Four toes on front limbs?

Habitat:

Found under a large lump of slate in outer suburban garden.

Notes:

These skinks seem quite variable. Images show almost black to pale grey with different tints of blue. Yellow belly... http://museumvictoria.com.au/bioinformat... Dark upper sections... http://museumvictoria.com.au/bioinformat...

11 Comments

Mark Ridgway
Mark Ridgway 10 years ago

Thanks Mac.

MacChristiansen
MacChristiansen 10 years ago

Nice find Mark

Mark Ridgway
Mark Ridgway 10 years ago

Thanks Aaron and Shanna. A pleasant surprise in our back yard and different from the zillions of 'garden skinks'.

ShannaB
ShannaB 10 years ago

Ooh, awesome spotting Argy.

Aaron_G
Aaron_G 10 years ago

Nice find, Mark!

Mark Ridgway
Mark Ridgway 10 years ago

Yep I think so Nath. It's definitely not 3 anyway.

NathBig
NathBig 10 years ago

McCoys has 5, maybe there is another digit there somewhere... :)

Mark Ridgway
Mark Ridgway 10 years ago

Thanks heaps guys. The only toes I can see are front limbs and I think it's 4. (pic added) I guess that makes it McCoys so I will look closer for ear holes. I guess next time I should catch it for a while. It's just out the back door... somewhere.

NathBig
NathBig 10 years ago

Yeah nice article! If you look at the distribution map on AROD, it's definitely found in the area where Mark spotted it. Plus it does appear to have no ear at all whereas the McCoys has a small opening. Not sure if Mark noticed how many toes it had, but that would make it an obvious call.

MartinL
MartinL 10 years ago

I recall nearly calling mine the three toed skink but I do not think that species occurs so far south. I found this fascinating article about transition to live birth for that one. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/...
Here is my spotting http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/113...

NathBig
NathBig 10 years ago

Tough one... potentially Eastern three-toed earless skink (Hemiergis talbingoensis)? http://www.arod.com.au/arod/reptilia/Squ...

Mark Ridgway
Spotted by
Mark Ridgway

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Spotted on Dec 15, 2013
Submitted on Dec 15, 2013

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