Southeastern five-lined skink
Plestiodon inexpectatus, the southeastern five-lined skink is a common skink in the southeastern United States.
The specific name, inexpectatus ("the unexpected"), is possibly a reference to the unexpected discovery of this species in 1932, almost 175 years after Linnaeus described Plestiodon fasciatus, commonly known as the American five-lined skink.
Diurnal animals are active during the daytime, with a period of sleeping or other inactivity at night. The timing of activity by an animal depends ...
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TerrestrialTerrestrial animals are animals that live predominantly or entirely on land (e.g., cats, ants, snails), as compared with aquatic animals, which liv...
Oviparous animals are female animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive...
Precocial species are those in which the young are relatively mature and mobile from the moment of birth or hatching. Precocial species are normall...
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starts withAs their common name suggests, southeastern five-lined skinks have five characteristic narrow stripes along their bodies that become lighter with age. The middle stripe tends to be narrower than the others, and the dark areas between stripes are black in young skinks but become brown with age. A similar lizard, the common five-lined skink (Plestiodon fasciatus ), is slightly smaller than the southeastern five-lined skink and has broader stripes. However, it is difficult to discriminate between these two species on the basis of physical appearance.
Young southeastern five-lined skinks have a bright blue or purplish tail, especially towards the tip. Also, stripes become a bright reddish orange towards the head. Juvenile coloration may persist into adulthood, giving the head of the animal an altogether orange-brown appearance.
![A en:Southeastern Five-lined Skink (Eumeces inexpectatus). Public domain. From the South Florida Watershed Management District, a U.S. governmental web site. Source: [1].
Notes from Ifd discussion about the licencing of this image
Not US federal goverme](https://s3.animalia.bio/animals/photos/full/1x1/eumeces-inexpectatus-skink.webp)
Southeastern five-lined skinks are common inhabitants of wooded areas of the southeastern United States. They are commonly found on small islands off the southeastern coast even in the absence of fresh water and vegetation.
They are diurnal ground-dwelling animals.
Like other skinks of the genus Plestiodon, they feed primarily on insects, preferring larger prey such as grasshoppers.
Southeastern five-lined skinks are oviparous; the clutch size varies from 6 to 12, with the number of eggs diminishing with higher latitudes. The female broods the eggs and protects them from predators, including other skinks. The hatchlings appear about one month after the eggs have been laid near the beginning of summer.
