University of Kansas Lawrence University of Kansas Publications, Museum of Natural History Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, A. Byron Leonard, Robert W. Wilson Volume 8, No. 1, pp. 1-156, 2 pls., 26 figs. in text, 17 tables Published September 1, 1954 University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas PRINTED BY FERD VOILAND, JR., STATE PRINTER TOPEKA, KANSAS 1954 25-3559 By...

The common five-lined skink (or common blue-tailed skink) is a small woodland lizard, abundantly and widely distributed over the eastern United States. Many authors have casually discussed this lizard or have treated in detail some phase of its biology. Excellent brief summaries of the known facts concerning its life history have been published by Smith (1946:349-350 and 1950:187-188) and Pope (1947:153-157). Nevertheless, no thoroughgoing study of its life history and ecology has heretofore bee

Skinks were obtained by active search; rocks and boulders were lifted up and the skinks thus exposed were seized by hand before they had time to escape. This method was effective when the skinks were using rocks for shelter and when temperatures were low enough so that they were slow and sluggish, but in hot weather the skinks were so quick and active that those exposed usually escaped. Usually skinks could be obtained much more easily by trapping. At the pond rock pile ( Fig. 26 ), for instance

The scutellation and osteology have been described in detail by Taylor (1936:39-48 and 199-206) and others, and need not be repeated. The five-lined skink is slender and elongate, somewhat snake-like (though much less so than many other skinks) as the head, neck, body, and tail are not well set off from each other, and the sleek, streamlined contours are broken only by the small limbs protruding from the sides of the body. The body is slightly flattened laterally, tending toward quadrangular sha

Eumeces is a widespread genus occurring in the New World in southern Canada and southward into Costa Rica. The greatest number of forms is in Mexico. In the Old World numerous species occur in southeastern Asia and on adjacent islands, and other species occur westward across southern Asia, and across North Africa to Morocco, with a major break in the continuity of distribution in the Himalayan region. Taylor in his revision recognized 57 forms with fifty full species, belonging to 15 major group

For approximately half the year, at the latitude of northeastern Kansas, five-lined skinks are dormant. In early fall, even before the advent of cold weather, they are hard to find apparently having begun their retirement into the sheltered situations where they spend the winter, even though they may not be fully dormant at that time. Remarkably little is known of the hibernation habits of this species or of reptiles in general for that matter. The limit of tolerance to low temperatures, the typ

Collectors and other observers have often noted that reptiles, in general, are not found in equal abundance throughout the entire season of their activity. Many kinds are most in evidence within a period of weeks after emergence from hibernation, which corresponds with the time of breeding and later they become much scarcer. In skinks of the genus Eumeces this tendency is perhaps even more pronounced than in most other kinds of reptiles. By midsummer or considerably earlier their period of great

Fig. 1. Habitat of Eumeces fasciatus near the center of the "Skink Woods" study area on the University of Kansas Natural History Reservation, a glade with loose rocks that were used as nesting sites and shelter by many five-lined skinks. Fig. 2. A log on rocky slope in open woods with sparse undergrowth, fifty feet from center of glade shown in Fig. 1 . The trees are mostly oaks ( Quercus Muehlenbergii ). The decaying log in middle foreground is much frequented by the skinks as a shelter and sou

Fig. 1. Old adult male, year-old young and hatchling in July, showing differences in size and pattern. Fig. 2. Adult female skink in a natural nest, with her clutch of eggs late in incubation. The nest cavity is excavated in loose soil beneath a flat rock, which was raised momentarily to expose the nest to view. Fig. 3. The same female and nest, with eggs in process of hatching. Noble and Bradley (1933:77) mention frequent homosexual matings between captive males. However, I observed no homosexu

Data obtained concerning the movements of these skinks demonstrated that individuals tend to limit their activities to small areas thoroughly familiar to them, and wander but little. Although the nature and extent of movements in reptiles in general, and in lizards especially, are poorly known, my findings are perhaps what might be expected from the studies of earlier workers on various other species of reptiles. Goin and Goin (1951:29) observed that Eumeces laticeps in Florida lives in hollow s

McCauley (1939:151) examined contents of 25 alimentary tracts of E. fasciatus collected in Maryland as the basis for the most extensive account of the food habits yet published. One tract contained a broken Eumeces tail, possibly that of the lizard that ate it, which had a recently broken stump tail. A half-grown skink contained numerous Eumeces scales, and McCauley interpreted this as indicating that it had fed on another of its own species or of E. laticeps . As no other hard parts of the assu

Like other members of the family Scincidae, Eumeces fasciatus tends to be secretive in its habits and it depends on concealment rather than speed, aggressive behavior, or noxious qualities to escape its enemies. As compared with lizards in general, or with other members of the genus Eumeces , five-lined skinks are relatively unspecialized in their behavior, and retain a good deal of versatility. While primarily terrestrial, they are able to burrow and climb. Their reactions toward prey and natur

Population structure obviously differs from place to place and from time to time. Because of the differences in secretiveness and elusiveness between young and adults and between males and females, true sex ratios and age ratios are obscured. In the period of weeks between the emergence from hibernation and the onset of the breeding season, these skinks tend to be less secretive than at other times, and secondary sexual and age differences in behavior are minimized. A sample at this season shoul

Five-lined skinks were studied for four consecutive years in four small areas, totalling approximately ten acres, on the University of Kansas Natural History Reservation, Douglas County, Kansas. The information gained from intensive study on these areas has been supplemented by data from skinks collected elsewhere in northeastern Kansas, and from an extensive literature pertaining to this species. The genus Eumeces , to which the common five-lined skink belongs, has more than 50 species, occurri

Allard, H. A. 1909.  Notes on some salamanders and lizards of North Georgia. Science, 30:122-124. Anderson, P. 1942.  Amphibians and reptiles of Jackson County, Missouri. Bull. Chicago Acad. Sci., 6 (no. 11):203-220. Anonymous. 1945.  Principal game birds and mammals of Texas. Texas Game Fish and Oyster Commission, Von Boeckman-Jones Co. Press, Austin, Texas. 149 pp. Axelrod, D. I. 1950.  Studies in late Tertiary paleobotany. Carnegie Inst. Wash., Publ. 590, 323 pp. Barbour, R. W. 1950.  The rep

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