The Five-lined Skink is characterized by four limbs, an ear opening on each side of the head, flat, smooth, shiny scales covering the body, five yellow stripes on the back and sides, two yellow stripes on the head, and a fifth scale (counting back from the nose) on the upper lip which extends up to the edge of the eye. This species exhibits different colors at various stages in its adult life. Young adults are black, with yellow stripes on the back, sides, and head, and have a bright blue tail. Older females are brownish; the yellow stripes may fade to brown or gray, and the blue tail becomes gray. Older males are uniformly olive or tan and lack stripes. During the breeding season, the heads of males turn orange-red. Adult males grow slightly larger than females. The juveniles are always striped and have bright blue tails.
This species closely resembles the Broad-headed Skink and can usually be differentiated only by examination of the head scales and by comparing size. Common Five-lined skinks typically have four pre-subocular scales on each side of the head. Sowards et al. (2022) found that this character held for 95% (21 of 22) of the Kansas specimens purportedly identified to species by mtDNA. One of the 22 specimens had 5 upper labials on each side.
Adults normally 125-178 mm (5-7 inches) in total length. The largest specimen from Kansas is a male (KU 288632) from Wyandotte County, with an unknown snout-vent length and a total length of 222 mm (8½ inches), collected by Daniel G. Murrow, James Markley, and Matt Singer on 30 April 1998. This is the maximum length throughout the range (Powell et al., 2016).
Well documented from the forested eastern third of Kansas. Records from Ness (KU 18417-8; not plotted due to insufficient locality data) and Ellis (MHP 5624) counties are either introductions or misidentified specimens. The record for Sedgwick County is in need of corroboration.
Fitch (1954) studied the Five-lined Skink in Kansas, and much of the information known from Kansas is based on his observations.
This lizard lives in open, rocky, well-drained, cut-over forests in upland areas. A patchy forest leaf cover is preferred; this species basks in spots where the sun reaches the ground. It is also quite abundant around sawmills or artificial piles of rocks and logs. The Five-lined Skink prefers a humid environment and obtains water by lapping dew from plant leaves.
This reptile is generally active from April to September at air temperatures from 60° to 90°F. However, Clarke (1958) found them active in March at an air temperature as low as 40°F in Osage County.
The Five-lined Skink is active diurnally in a home range that varies 30-90 feet in diameter, but it is not territorial. At night, this lizard retires beneath rocks and logs. During winter, this species burrows underground or retreats into a burrow to avoid cold temperatures.
In the spring, about three weeks after emerging from winter inactivity, these lizards become sexually active. At this time, the males develop bright orange-red heads and are extremely aggressive, continually fighting with other males. The orange-red head of males permits quick sex recognition. Male Five-lined Skinks search for and find females by sight and smell, but exhibit no courtship behavior. A male pursues a female, bites and holds her loose skin on her shoulder, and bends beneath her tail until their cloacae meet. Copulation lasts about five minutes. A few days after copulation, females become hostile to males and, by May or June, are extremely secretive. At this time, they hide beneath rocks or in rotten logs and stumps and dig nests. Females lay only one clutch of 4 to 14 eggs per year (Fitch, 1985), averaging eight or nine in number. Each female remains in her nest with the eggs to protect them. The eggs hatch within one to two months, depending on available moisture and prevailing temperatures.
Five-lined Skinks are carnivorous, eating spiders, roaches, crickets, locusts, small grasshoppers, moths, beetles, snails, smaller lizards, and newborn mice.
Predators of the Five-lined Skink include hawks, opossums, armadillos, skunks, moles, shrews, snakes, and other larger lizards.
Juveniles and young adults have bright blue tails until their second year of life. Clark and Hall (1970) demonstrated that aggressive adult males are inhibited from attacking individual lizards with blue tails and suggested the blue tail evolved for this purpose. The blue tail has been hypothesized to serve as a decoy, distracting predators from the lizard's head and body. Many other skinks worldwide have blue tails when young. Additionally, there are other lizards, including the Six-lined Racerunner in Kansas, whose young have blue tails.
First reported from Kansas by Cragin (1880) on the basis of reports by Kansas State University Entomologist Edwin A. Popenoe (in Shawnee County), Fort Riley surgeon William H. Hammond (at Fort Riley, Riley County), and University of Kansas entomologist Francis H. Snow (at Lawrence, Douglas County). Cragin (1885) reported on a considerable number of specimens collected at Neosho Falls by ornithologist Colonel Nathaniel S. Goss, which were sent to Washburn College and the Kansas Academy of Science. Burt (1933) listed specimens of this species in the former Kansas State College Museum (no longer in existence), collected by Edwin A. Popenoe along Indian Creek in Shawnee County sometime in 1895. None of the early specimens are known to exist now.
The earliest existing specimens (KU 709-10) from Kansas were collected in Sumner County by Edward H. Taylor on 5 April 1908.
Placed into Plestiodon (from Eumeces) by Smith (2005) and Brandley et al. (2005).
Based on a captive specimen, Snider and Bowler (1992) reported a maximum longevity for this lizard of two years, seven months, and 28 days.
References
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