The Many-lined Skink is a medium-sized member of the Eumeces skink

Skink

Skinks are lizards belonging to the family Scincidae. Together with several other lizard families, including Lacertidae , they comprise the superfamily or infraorder Scincomorpha...

s, a kind of lizard

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 North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

.

Taxonomy

The taxonomy of this species is somewhat unclear, even amongst researchers. Most commonly, two subspecies are recognized:

• E.m. multivirgatus (Hallowell 1857), the Northern Many-lined Skink, and
• E.m. epipleurotus (Cope
  Edward Drinker Cope
  Edward 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...
  
   1880), the Variable Skink.

The latter is sometimes treated as a separate species Eumeces epipleurotus or Eumeces gaigeae (Taylor

Edward Harrison Taylor

Edward Harrison Taylor was an American herpetologist from Kansas.He was born in Maysville, Missouri and studied at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, graduating with a B.A. in 1912. Subsequently, he went to the Philippines, where at first he held a teacher's post in a village in central...

 1935), or given as the subspecies E.m. gaigeae. These names are in honor of a Helen Beulah Thompson Gaige

Helen Beulah Thompson Gaige

Helen Beulah Thompson Gaige was an American herpetologist, curator of Reptiles and Amphibians for the Museum of Zoology at the University of Michigan and specialist in neotropical frogs....

 (1890–1976), a herpetologist from the University of Michigan

University of Michigan

The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...

.

E.m. epipleurotus is also called the Two-lined Skink.

Description

The Many-lined Skink is a medium-sized skink reaching a maximum length from snout to vent of about 7.5 cm (3 inches) and a total length of roughly 19 cm (about 7.5 in). Its body is olive to brown in color. E.m. multivirgatus has black stripes along the body and tail, while E.m. epipleurotus has two white stripes with black borders.

Range and habitat

The range of E. m. multivirgatus is limited in the north by southern South Dakota

South Dakota

South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...

, Nebraska

Nebraska

Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....

, and Wyoming

Wyoming

Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...

 and extends in the south until the Arkansas River

Arkansas River

The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. The Arkansas generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's initial basin starts in the Western United States in Colorado, specifically the Arkansas...

 in Colorado

Colorado

Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

. E.m. multivirgatus prefers sandy soil and occurs in habitat below 1675 m (5500 ft).

E. m. epipleurotus occurs from south-eastern Utah

Utah

Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

 and southern Colorado through Arizona

Arizona

Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...

, New Mexico

New Mexico

New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

, and western Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

 to Chihuahua in Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

. It lives in rocky habitat up to elevations of 2600 m (8500 ft).

External links

• BISON fact sheet for E. m. epipleurotus