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Ground Skink
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- Order: Squamata (scaled reptiles)
- Suborder: Lacertilia (=Sauria) (lizards)
- Family: Scincidae (skinks)
- Genus: Scincella (ground skinks)
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Also known as: little
brown skink |
Scientific Name: Scincella
lateralis (Say, 1823) |
Habitat: Open
woodland, fields, suburbs; anywhere with plenty of ground cover. |
Scincus="lizard/skink," ella="little,"
lateralis="of the side" (stripes)
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Length: To just over 5
inches total. |
Former Scientific
Names: Lygosoma laterale, Scincella laterale |
Food: Various small
insects and arachnids. |
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Ground skinks can be locally
abundant, but most people wouldn't even know they existed.
They are fairly secretive and spend most of their time rooting
through leaf litter looking for food. Usually the only clue
of their presence is the rustling of the leaves. These
skinks are pretty low on the food chain, and serve as a plentiful
prey item for many animals, including larger snakes and lizards. |
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I've observed many of these
skinks in Big Thicket National Preserve in eastern Texas.
However, I the photos here are of an individual I found in my own
backyard near San Antonio in February 2003. It was brumating
in a pile of bricks hidden in some tall grass. The
temperature that day was in the 40s Fahrenheit, but a few days
prior it was below freezing. I'm curious if the lizard had
stayed above ground during that time, or sought a warmer hiding
place. The last half of its tail was missing. Most
lizards can lose their tails and regenerate them, although the
replacement is never quite as nice as the original. |
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See also the ground skinks found
in Oklahoma and Arkansas. |
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