Mole Skink
Encyclopedia
The Mole Skink is a species of small lizard
living in the Southeastern United States
.
:
The species was first described by Baird in 1859 as Plistodon egregius. In 1871, P. onocrepis was described by Cope. In 1875, the two species were reassigned to the genus Eumeces. In 1935, two subspecies were defined, E.e. egregius and E.e. onocrepis, and in 1957, E.e. similis was separated from E.e. egregius. In 2005 North American members of genus Eumeces were reassigned to Plestiodon.
and Georgia
.
s and scrub.They often like to be buried underground and live there.
The Bluetail Mole Skink is a small, shiny, cylindrical lizard of a brownish color. Juveniles usually have a blue tail which makes up slightly more than half of the animal's length. Regenerated tails and the tails of older individuals are typically pinkish. The legs are somewhat reduced in size and are used only during surface locomotion, not when the animal "swims" through the sand (Christman 1992). During the breeding season, males develop a colorful orange pattern on their sides.
The Bluetail Mole Skink grows to 9 to 15 cm (3 to 6 inches). It shares habitat with the Sand Skink, which is also endangered, but does not compete with it: whereas the Sand Skink feeds underground, the Bluetail Mole Skink hunts on the surface. Like other mole skinks, it feeds primarily on cockroach
es, spider
s, and cricket
s. It is found in central Florida.
The Bluetail Mole Skink is an endangered species
.
Lizard
Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with nearly 3800 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica as well as most oceanic island chains...
living in the Southeastern United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Taxonomy
The species is subdivided into five subspeciesSubspecies
Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...
:
- Florida Keys Mole Skink, P.p. egregius BairdSpencer Fullerton BairdSpencer Fullerton Baird was an American ornithologist, ichthyologist and herpetologist. Starting in 1850 he was assistant-secretary and later secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C...
1859: occurs only on some of the Florida KeysFlorida KeysThe Florida Keys are a coral archipelago in southeast United States. They begin at the southeastern tip of the Florida peninsula, about south of Miami, and extend in a gentle arc south-southwest and then westward to Key West, the westernmost of the inhabited islands, and on to the uninhabited Dry...
. - Cedar Key Mole Skink, P.p. insularis Mount 1965: occurs only on three islands at Cedar KeyCedar Key, FloridaCedar Key is a city in Levy County, Florida, United States. The population was 790 at the 2000 census. According to the U.S Census estimates of 2005, the city had a population of 958. The Cedar Keys are a cluster of islands close to the mainland. Most of the developed area of the city has been on...
. - Bluetail Mole Skink, P.p. lividus Mount 1965: occurs only in interior central Florida; shares its Florida ScrubFlorida scrubFlorida scrub is an endangered temperate coniferous forest ecoregion of the state of Florida in the United States. It is found on coastal and inland sand ridges and is characterized by a xeromorphic plant community dominated by shrubs and dwarf oaks. Scrub soils, a type of entisol, are derived...
habitat with the Sand Skink. - Peninsula Mole Skink, P.p. onocrepis CopeEdward Drinker CopeEdward Drinker Cope was an American paleontologist and comparative anatomist, as well as a noted herpetologist and ichthyologist. Born to a wealthy Quaker family, Cope distinguished himself as a child prodigy interested in science; he published his first scientific paper at the age of nineteen...
1871. - Northern Mole Skink, P.p. similis McConkeyEdwin H. McConkeyEdwin H. McConkey is an American biologist. , he is a professor emeritus at the department for Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Colorado....
1957.
The species was first described by Baird in 1859 as Plistodon egregius. In 1871, P. onocrepis was described by Cope. In 1875, the two species were reassigned to the genus Eumeces. In 1935, two subspecies were defined, E.e. egregius and E.e. onocrepis, and in 1957, E.e. similis was separated from E.e. egregius. In 2005 North American members of genus Eumeces were reassigned to Plestiodon.
Status
The first three subspecies listed above are protected, and the Bluetail Mole Skink is classified as a threatened species since 1987. The major threats to all three subspecies are habitat destruction due to residential, commercial, and agricultural development and overcollection by herpetological enthusiasts. The remaining two subspecies are rather common. The Northern Mole Skink also occurs in southern AlabamaAlabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
and Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
.
Habitat
Mole skinks are found in sandhillSandhill
A sandhill is a type of ecological community or xeric wildfire-maintained ecosystem. It is not the same as a sand dune. It features very short fire return intervals, one to five years. Without fire, sandhills undergo ecological succession and become more oak dominated.Entisols are the typical...
s and scrub.They often like to be buried underground and live there.
Reproduction
Mole Skinks reach sexual maturity after one year. They mate in winter; the female lays three to seven eggs in spring in a shallow nest cavity less than 30 cm below the surface. The eggs incubate for 31 to 51 days, during which time the female tends the nest.The Bluetail Mole Skink
The Bluetail Mole Skink grows to 9 to 15 cm (3 to 6 inches). It shares habitat with the Sand Skink, which is also endangered, but does not compete with it: whereas the Sand Skink feeds underground, the Bluetail Mole Skink hunts on the surface. Like other mole skinks, it feeds primarily on cockroach
Cockroach
Cockroaches are insects of the order Blattaria or Blattodea, of which about 30 species out of 4,500 total are associated with human habitations...
es, spider
Spider
Spiders are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae with fangs that inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other groups of organisms...
s, and cricket
Cricket (insect)
Crickets, family Gryllidae , are insects somewhat related to grasshoppers, and more closely related to katydids or bush crickets . They have somewhat flattened bodies and long antennae. There are about 900 species of crickets...
s. It is found in central Florida.
The Bluetail Mole Skink is an endangered species
Endangered species
An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters...
.
External links
- Comprehensive overview of the Bluetail Mole Skink at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
- Multispecies Recovery Plan for South Florida, section on the Bluetail Mole Skink (PDF file, 147 KBKilobyteThe kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Although the prefix kilo- means 1000, the term kilobyte and symbol KB have historically been used to refer to either 1024 bytes or 1000 bytes, dependent upon context, in the fields of computer science and information...
).
Selected literature
- Christman, S.P. (1992): Endangered: blue-tailed mole skink, Eumeces egregius lividus (Mount). Pages 117-122 in P.E. Moler, ed. Rare and endangered biota of Florida. University Press of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.
- Mount, R.H. (1965): Variation and systematics of the scincoid lizard Eumeces egregius (Baird). Bulletin of the Florida State Museum 9:183-213.
- Smith Hobart M. 2005. Plestiodon: a Replacement Name for Most Members of the Genus Eumeces in North America. Journal of Kansas Herpetology. Number 14.