A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Plestiodon (genus)
Spotted on May 20, 2015
Submitted on Sep 1, 2015
1 Comment
This is either a five-lined skink (Plestiodon fasciatus) or a southeastern five-lined skink (Plestiodon inexpectatus). The two can only be told apart by examining the scales on the underside of the tail. One has an extra row that the other lacks. If you were a little further north, then this could also be a broadhead skink (Plestiodon laticeps), and the only way to tell it apart from the five-lineds is to count the number of scales on the upper lip. So unless you can catch one (and they are super fast!), you'll have to leave the ID at genus level :)