# Skink ID



## ReptileMad_98 (Jan 10, 2013)

found this skink in my back yard i think it is a three toed earless skink but not entirely sure.


----------



## Mitella (Jan 11, 2013)

Well done on finding him he is part of the Hemiergis family but he's a bit lighter than the usual three toed earless skinks


----------



## ReptileMad_98 (Jan 11, 2013)

thanks just saved him from our cat!!! lucky she didnt kill him


----------



## GeckPhotographer (Jan 11, 2013)

Yes it's a Three-toed Skink, Hemiergis peronii tridactyla. This colour is usual.

Blue has pointed out to me that I mis-read the location the skink was from (I read it as south west Australia), if it's from near Adelaide the species will be the same (ID'd from colour), but it should have 4 fingers and toes, (the feet I can see in the picture only show 3?)


----------



## ReptileMad_98 (Jan 11, 2013)

ok thanks thats unusual


----------



## jamesn48 (Jan 11, 2013)

If there are 3 toes then I would say it is H.decresiensis continentis as the SA subspecies of H.peronii has 4. While in my limited experience the H.peronii I have seen are lighter than the H.decresiemsis continentis I have seen, I would prefer to ID it on morphological features than colour.


----------



## GeckPhotographer (Jan 12, 2013)

> If there are 3 toes then I would say it is H.decresiensis continentis as the SA subspecies of H.peronii has 4. While in my limited experience the H.peronii I have seen are lighter than the H.decresiemsis continentis I have seen, I would prefer to ID it on morphological features than colour.



While I'd generally agree with you that morphological features are a better tool to distinguish species, and that if the skink truly had 3 fingers and toes it keys out to H.decresiensis, I'd argue that a Hemiergis of that colour, and more importantly patterning (red lines down the side), is textbook H.peronii, that H.decresiensis sensu stricto may vary in colour slightly but they are not that light nor do they have that patterning. By which I mean, perhaps the skink has lost toes (it's common) or for some other reason the toe counts in the pictures are incorrect, but from colour and pattern I am positive that that is not H.decresiensis, and that is certainly fits H.peronii.


----------



## jamesn48 (Jan 12, 2013)

After having a trawl through the Internet I'd agree that is probably H.peronii, I couldn't find a single picture of H.decresiensis that has the burnt orange dorsolaterals that Peronii often has


----------



## Bluetongue1 (Jan 14, 2013)

*Beardielover32*, a questionsthat might help resolve the issue... 
Did you happen to count the digits on any or all of the the feet?
Did you have look at the vebtral surfaces? If you did, what was the belly like? What was the underneath of the tail like?

Blue


----------



## ReptileMad_98 (Jan 15, 2013)

im pretty sure that it had 3 toes on all feet the belly and tail were fairly smooth the end of the tail had fallen of from the cat.


----------

