A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Nannoscincus maccoyi
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?
Found under a large lump of slate in outer suburban garden.
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...
Thanks Aaron and Shanna. A pleasant surprise in our back yard and different from the zillions of 'garden skinks'.
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.
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.
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...
Tough one... potentially Eastern three-toed earless skink (Hemiergis talbingoensis)? http://www.arod.com.au/arod/reptilia/Squ...