THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Reptilia    Squamata (part-other lizards)    Scincidae  

Mole Skink
Plestiodon egregius Baird, 1859 “1858”
PLES-tee-oh-don — eh-GREE-jee-us

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 There are no current SSAR comments for this taxon.

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2023.04.10.08.04.16)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.41 MB

Province/State Distribution:
United States: Alabama Florida Georgia

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named for its distinctiveness among related species.
Plestiodon — Greek roots meaning “abundant tooth,” referring to dental morphology.
egregius — Latin for “distinguished” or “remarkable,” suggesting its clear difference or prominence compared to congeners.

First instance(s) of published English names:
Florida Skink (Eumeces egregius: Yarrow, Henry C. 1882. Check list of North American Reptilia and Batrachia with catalogue of specimens in U. S. National Museum. Bulletin of the United States National Museum (24):1-249); Cope's Skink (Eumeces onocrepis: Yarrow, Henry C. 1882. Check list of North American Reptilia and Batrachia with catalogue of specimens in U. S. National Museum. Bulletin of the United States National Museum (24):1-249); Floridan Skink (Eumeces egregius: Davis, N. S. Jr. and Frank L. Rice. 1883. Descriptive catalogue of North American batrachia and reptilia, found east of Mississippi River. Illinois Natural History Survey Bulletin 1(5):71); Florida Red-tailed Skink (Eumeces egregius: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Striped Red-tailed Skink (Eumeces egregius egregius: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Brown Red-tailed Skink (Eumeces egregius onocrepis: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.);

Taxon Links:

  
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
  
The Reptile Database
  
NatureServe
  
iNaturalist
  
GenBank
  
USGS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

Selected References:
1859 "1858" Baird, Spencer F. Description of new genera and species of North American lizards in the museum of the Smithsonian Institution. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 10:253-256
1936 Taylor, Edward H. A taxonomic study of the cosmopolitan scincoid lizards of the genus Eumeces, with an account of the distribution and relationships of its species. University of Kansas Science Bulletin 23(1):1-643
1957 McConkey, Edwin H. The subspecies of Eumeces egregius, a lizard of the southeastern United States. Bulletin of the Florida State Museum, Biological Sciences 2(2):13-23
1965 Mount, Robert H. Variation and systematics of the scincoid lizard, Eumeces egregius (Baird). Bulletin of the Florida State Museum, Biological Sciences 9(5):183-213
1968 Mount, Robert H. Eumeces egregius. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (73):1-2
1991 Collins, Joseph T. Viewpoint: A new taxonomic arrangement for some North American amphibins and reptiles Herpetological Review 22(2):42-43
2000 Griffith, Hugh, Andre Ngo and Robert W. Murphy. A cladistic evaluation of the cosmopolitan genus Eumeces Weigmann (Reptilia, Squamata, Scincidae) Russian Journal of Herpetology 7(1):1-16
2003 Branch, L. C., A. -M. Clark, Paul E. Moler, and B. W. Bowen. Fragmented landscapes, habitat specificity, and conservation genetics of three lizards in Florida scrub. Conservation Genetics 4:199-212
2004 Schmitz, Andreas, Patrick Mausfeld, and Dirk Embert. Molecular studies on the genus Eumeces Weigmann, 1834: Phylogenetic relationships and taxonomic implications Hamadryad 28(1-2):73-89
2005 Smith, Hobart M. Plestiodon: A replacement name for most members of the genus Eumeces in North America. Journal of Kansas Herpetology (14):15-16
2005 Brandley, Matthew C., Andreas Schmitz, and Todd W. Reeder. Partitioned Bayesian analyses, partition choice, and the phylogenetic relationships of Scincid Lizards. Systematic Biology 54(3):373–390
2006 Richmond, J. Q. Evolutionary basis of parallelism in North American scincid lizards. Evolution & Development 8(6):477–490
2011 Brandley, Matthew C., Yuezhao Wang, Xianguang Guo, Adrian Nieto Montes De Oca, Manuel Feria-Ortiz, Tsutomu Hikda, and Hidetoshi Ota. Accommodating heterogenous rates of evolution in molecular divergence dating methods: An example using intercontinental dispersal of Plestiodon (Eumeces) lizards. Systematic Biology 60(1):2-15
2012 Schrey, Aaron W., Kyle G. Ashton, Stacy Heath, Henry R. Mushinsky, and Earl D. McCoy. Range-wide genetic analysis of the threatened Bluetail Mole Skink Identifies similar genetic structure with sympatric lizards. Journal of Herpetology 46(2):241-247
2012 Brandley, Matthew C., Hidetoshi Ota, Tsutomu Hikida, Adrian Nieto Montes de Oca, Manuel Feria-Ortiz, Xianguang Guo, and Yuezhao Wang. The phylogenetic systematics of blue-tailed skinks (Plestiodon) and the family Scincidae. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 165(1):163-189
2014 Crother, Brian I. The bold taxonomic hypotheses of Collins (1991): 23 years later. Herpetological Review 45(2):268-272
2025 Enge, Kevin M., Matthew T. Fedler, Paul E. Moler, Travis M. Thomas, and Barry W. Mansell. Correcting an egregius mistake: Redescription of the Cedar Keys Mole Skink. Herpetological Review 55(3):325–330

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Friday 05 December 2025 16:55 CT