Plestiodon is a genus of in the family Scincidae (skinks). The genus contains many species formerly classified under the genus Eumeces, except those now placed in Mesoscincus. They are secretive, agile animals with a cylindrical body covered with smooth, shiny scales. They are distributed from East Asia to throughout North America from southern Canada south to Mexico, including oceanic islands such as Bermuda.
Defensive mechanism
The conspicuous coloring of species of
Plestiodon is a survival trait: it attracts a predator's attention to the tail of the animal, which will break off when grabbed. A skink thus often manages to escape and hide under some rock, log, or fallen leaves while the predator still contemplates the wildly thrashing severed tail. (This is an instance of what is called
autotomy: voluntarily shedding a body part in order to escape, and later regenerating the body part.) After the tail regenerates, it usually has the same color as the rest of the body and is typically shorter than the original tail. In some species, regrown tails are pinkish. A regrown tail has a
cartilage rod for support instead of
.
Reproduction
Plestiodon are all
Oviparity. The female lays eggs once a year after the breeding season in spring. The clutch size varies and is typically around 5 to 10 eggs. The hatchlings appear in late summer.
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Like other
,
Plestiodon skinks are "cold-blooded" — they are
animals: their
metabolism cannot regulate their
body temperature. To warm up, they often bask in the sun. In colder climates, they
hibernation in winter in burrows below the
frost line. In hot climates, they are active mainly in the morning and evening, staying under cover during the hottest hours of the day to avoid overheating.
Systematics
Recently two taxonomic revisions have been made regarding the 19th century
genus Eumeces. They both resulted in similar results; the
genus is
paraphyletic and must be "sliced up" into several different
genus. Griffith et al. (2000) proposed that the
type species for
Eumeces,
E. pavimentatus, which is considered by many to be a
subspecies of
Eumeces schneiderii, should be changed to
Lacerta fasciata, so that the genus name
Eumeces would stay with the most species-rich
clade. However this petition has not been verified by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.
Schmitz et al. argued that Griffith et al. violated the Code and rejected the proposal on good grounds. Thus only the African
species of the
Eumeces schneiderii group still belong to the genus
Eumeces.
Species that are now in Plestiodon:[. www.reptile-database.org.]
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Plestiodon anthracinus – coal skink
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Plestiodon barbouri – Thomas Barbour eyelid skink
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Plestiodon bilineatus – two-lined short-nosed skink
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Plestiodon brevirostris – short-nosed skink
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Plestiodon callicephalus – mountain skink
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Plestiodon capito – Gail's eyelid skink
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Plestiodon chinensis – Chinese blue-tailed skink
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Plestiodon colimensis – Colima skink
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Plestiodon copei – Cope's skink
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Plestiodon coreensis – Smith's skink
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Plestiodon dicei – Dice's short-nosed skink
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Plestiodon dugesii – Dugès's skink
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Plestiodon egregius – mole skink
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Plestiodon elegans – five-striped blue-tailed skink, Shanghai elegant skink
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Plestiodon fasciatus – five-lined skink
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Plestiodon finitimus – Far Eastern skink
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Plestiodon gilberti – Gilbert's skink
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Plestiodon indubitus – Mexican short-nosed skink
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Plestiodon inexpectatus – southeastern five-lined skink
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Plestiodon japonicus
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Plestiodon kishinouyei – Kishinouye's giant skink
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Plestiodon kuchinoshimensis
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Plestiodon lagunensis – San Lucan skink
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Plestiodon laticeps – broad-headed skink
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Plestiodon latiscutatus – Far Eastern skink, Japanese five-lined skink
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Plestiodon leucostictus – Chinese blue-tailed skink
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Plestiodon liui
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Plestiodon longiartus
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Plestiodon longirostris – Bermuda skink, longnose skink, or the rock lizard
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Plestiodon lotus
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Plestiodon lynxe – oak forest skink
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Plestiodon marginatus – Okinawa blue-tailed skink, Ousima skink
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Plestiodon multilineatus – Chihuahuan skink
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Plestiodon multivirgatus – many-lined skink
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Plestiodon nietoi
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Plestiodon obsoletus – Great Plains skink
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Plestiodon ochoterenae – Guerreran skink
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Plestiodon oshimensis – Ousima skink
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Plestiodon parviauriculatus – northern pygmy skink
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Plestiodon parvulus – southern pygmy skink
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Plestiodon popei – Pope's skink
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Plestiodon quadrilineatus – four-striped skink, Hong Kong skink
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Plestiodon reynoldsi – Florida sand skink
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Plestiodon septentrionalis – prairie skink
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Plestiodon skiltonianus – western skink
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Plestiodon stimpsonii – Stimpson's skink
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Plestiodon sumichrasti – Sumichrast's skink
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Plestiodon takarai – Senkaku skink
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Plestiodon tamdaoensis – Vietnam skink
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Plestiodon tetragrammus – four-lined skink
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Plestiodon tunganus
Nota bene: A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than Plestiodon.
Species that are now in Eurylepis:
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Eumeces poonaensis – now Eurylepis poonaensis
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Eumeces taeniolatus – now Eurylepis taeniolata
Species that are now in Mesoscincus:
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Eumeces altamirani – now Mesoscincus altamirani
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Eumeces managuae – now Mesoscincus managuae
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Eumeces schwartzei – now Mesoscincus schwartzei
Plestiodon brevirostris group
The
Plestiodon brevirostris group consists of 14 species.
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Plestiodon bilineatus, Plestiodon copei, Plestiodon dicei, Plestiodon dugesii, Plestiodon indubitus, Plestiodon lynxe, and Plestiodon parviauriculatus – highlands of the central Mexican Plateau, Sierra Madre Occidental, Sierra Madre Oriental, and Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt
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Plestiodon lotus – Balsas Basin
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Plestiodon colimensis and Plestiodon parvulus – Pacific lowlands from northwestern Michoacán to Sonora
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Plestiodon sumichrasti – the Atlantic versant from central Veracruz south and east through northern Guatemala and Belize to Honduras
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Plestiodon brevirostris – Sierra Madre del Sur
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Plestiodon nietoi and Plestiodon ochoterenae – Sierra Madre del Sur, in south-central Guerrero and from central Guerrero to western Oaxaca
Further reading
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, Arnold EN (2006). "Using ancient and recent DNA to explore relationships of extinct and endangered Leiolopisma skinks (Reptilia: Scincidae) in the Mascarene islands". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 39 (2): 503–511. (HTML abstract).
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, , (2000). "A cladistic evaluation of the cosmopolitan genus Eumeces Wiegmann (Reptilia, Squamata, Scincidae)". Russian Journal of Herpetology 7 (1): 1–16. [1]
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Schmitz, Andreas; ; (2004). "Molecular studies on the genus Eumeces Wiegmann, 1834: phylogenetic relationships and taxonomic implications". Hamadryad 28 (1-2): 73–89. [2]
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Smith HM (2005). " Plestiodon: a Replacement Name for Most Members of the Genus Eumeces in North America". Journal of Kansas Herpetology (14): 15–16. [3]
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, , (2005). "Partitioned Bayesian analyses, partition choice, and the phylogenetic relationships of Scincid lizards". Systematic Biology 54 (3): 373–390. [4]
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; ; ; (2006). "Parapatric distribution of the lizards, Plestiodon (formerly Eumeces) latiscutatus and P. japonicus (Reptilia: Scincidae) around the Izu Peninsula, central Japan, and its biogeographic implications". Zoological Science 23: 419–425.
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Motokawa, Junko; Hikida, Tsutomu (2003). "Genetic variation and differentiation in the Japanese five-lined skink, Eumeces latiscutatus (Reptile: Squamata)". Zoological Science 20: 97–106.
External links
