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Project Noah Nature School
Plestiodon fasciatus
Northwest River Park Virginia
Seen within close proximity of the bright headed male five-lined skink spotting
Spotted on May 9, 2015
Submitted on Aug 14, 2015
5 Comments
No problem, that's what this site is here for :) And I know what you mean about them being fast, very rarely do I catch them! I am lucky here, as long as I get a look at the face with my binos or get a photo of the face, I can tell which species it is since I don't have to worry about the scales under the tail with P. inexpectatus!
Very interesting ! I was trying to catch them but they are so darn quick ! Thanks for all your help, you have be very informative !
Skinks in the southeast US are a problem. You have 3 species that are nearly identical in looks. Broadhead skink (Plestiodon laticeps) can only be told apart by counting the upper labial scales (showed you that on the other spotting). It has 5, where the other two species have 4. So if you have a skink with 4 upper labials, the only way to tell them apart is to look at the scales underneath the tail (so you have to have them in hand). Southeastern five-lined skink (Plestiodon inexpectatus) do not have an enlarged row of scales underneath the tail, and five-lined skinks (Plestiodon fasciatus) do have an enlarged row of scales underneath the tail (so do broadhead, but counting lip scales works just as well). Broadhead are larger, but that only works if it's an adult and you know what size they are compared to the other two. They are very tricky!
I didn't, I wasn't sure the name so I kept it basic. Is that what it is? From what I saw online it looks like it and I am in the southeast lol. I'm new to this, trying to learn.
How did you rule out this being a southeastern five-lined skink?