THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Reptilia    Squamata (part)    Scincidae  

Western Skink
Plestiodon skiltonianus Baird and Girard, 1852
pless-tee-OH-don — skil-tone-ee-AWE-nus

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 Because the relationships within E. skiltonianus and between E. skiltonianus and the lineages within E. gilberti are complicated (Richmond and Reeder, 2002, Evolution 56: 1498–1513) and need to be analyzed using nuclear markers, we have retained the previously recognized subspecies as legacy taxa.

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: - 3.5 MB

Province/State Distribution:
Canada: British Columbia
USA: Arizona California Idaho Montana Nevada Oregon Utah Washington Wyoming

First instance(s) of published English names:
Skilton's Skink (Eumeces skiltonianus: 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); Western Skink (Eumeces skiltonianus: Van Denburgh, John. 1897. The reptiles of the Pacific Coast and Great Basin: An account of the species known to inhabit California, and Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Nevada. Occasional Papers of the California Academy of Sciences 5():9-236); Western Skink (Plestiodon skiltonianus: Van Denburgh, John. 1922. The Reptiles of Western North America: An Account of the Species Known to Inhabit California and Oregon, Washinton, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, British Columbia, Sonora, and Lower California. Volume I. Lizards. California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco. 556pp.); Western Skink (Eumeces skiltonianus: 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:
1852 Baird, Spencer F. and Charles Girard. Characteristics of some new reptiles in the Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia 6:68-70
1934 Patch, Clyde L. Eumeces in Canada. Copeia 1934(1):50
1975 Stewart, Glenn R. and Ronald S. Daniel. Microornamentation of lizard scales: Some variations and taxonomic correlations. Herpetologica 31(1):117-130
1988 Tanner, Wilmer W. Eumeces skiltonianus Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (447):1-4
2002 Richmond, Jonathan Q. and Tod W. Reeder. Evidence for parallel ecological speciation in Scincid lizards of the Eumeces skiltonianus species group (Squamata: Scincidae). Evolution 56(7):1498-1513
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
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

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Friday 13 June 2025 04:35 CT