THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Reptilia    Squamata (part-other lizards)    Scincidae  

Four-lined Skink
Plestiodon tetragrammus Baird, 1859
PLES-tee-oh-don — teh-trah-GRAM-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: 2023.04.10.08.04.15)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.25 MB

Province/State Distribution:
United States: Texas

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named for its four-striped dorsal pattern.
Plestiodon — Greek origin, meaning “abundant tooth.”
tetragrammus — From Greek tetra- (four) and grammē (γραμμή, line or stripe), meaning “four-lined,” describing the four dorsal stripes typical of the species.

First instance(s) of published English names:
Blunt-tail Skink (Eumeces pachyurus: 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); Arizona Skink (Eumeces tetragrammus: 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); Short-lined Skink (Plestiodon brevilineatus: Strecker, John K., Jr. 1922. An annotated catalogue of the amphibians and reptiles of Bexar County, Texas. Bulletin Scientific Society of San Antonio (4):1-31); Short-lined Skink (Eumeces brevilineatus: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Four-lined Skink (Eumeces tetragrammus: 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
1990 Lieb, Carl S. Eumeces tetragrammus Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (492):1-4
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
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 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 05 December 2025 16:55 CT