Broad-Headed Skink Plestiodon Laticeps

broad-headed skink Plestiodon laticeps Kingdom: Animalia FEATURES Phylum: Chordata The broad-headed skink averages six and one-half to Class: Reptilia nearly 13 inches in length. It has smooth, shiny Order: Squamata scales. The male has an olive-brown body with a red-brown, large head and swollen cheeks. The Family: Scincidae female and young have a dark body with five, long, ILLINOIS STATUS light stripes. common, native BEHAVIORS The broad-headed skink may be found in the southern one-half of Illinois and areas around the Illinois and Mississippi rivers. It lives in dead trees that have woodpecker holes, swampy areas and wooded areas as well as empty urban lots. The broad-headed skink moves quickly and is a good climber. It is active during the day. It will bite if disturbed. The mating season occurs from April through May. The female deposits six to 16 eggs in a rotten log or stump or in leaf litter sometime in June or July. The female remains with the eggs until hatching, a period of one to two months. This animal eats insects and any other animals it can overpower. male ILLINOIS RANGE © Illinois Department of Natural Resources. 2020. Biodiversity of Illinois. Unless otherwise noted, photos and images © Illinois Department of Natural Resources. © Brad Glorioso © Brad Glorioso © Illinois Department of Natural Resources. 2020. Biodiversity of Illinois. Unless otherwise noted, photos and images © Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Aquatic Habitats bottomland forests; swamps Woodland Habitats bottomland forests; coniferous forests; southern Illinois lowlands; upland deciduous forests Prairie and Edge Habitats edge © Illinois Department of Natural Resources. 2020. Biodiversity of Illinois. Unless otherwise noted, photos and images © Illinois Department of Natural Resources..

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Checklist Reptile and Amphibian
To report sightings, contact: Natural Resources Coordinator 980-314-1119 www.parkandrec.com REPTILE AND AMPHIBIAN CHECKLIST Mecklenburg County, NC: 66 species Mole Salamanders ☐ Pickerel Frog ☐ Ground Skink (Scincella lateralis) ☐ Spotted Salamander (Rana (Lithobates) palustris) Whiptails (Ambystoma maculatum) ☐ Southern Leopard Frog ☐ Six-lined Racerunner ☐ Marbled Salamander (Rana (Lithobates) sphenocephala (Aspidoscelis sexlineata) (Ambystoma opacum) (sphenocephalus)) Nonvenomous Snakes Lungless Salamanders Snapping Turtles ☐ Eastern Worm Snake ☐ Dusky Salamander (Desmognathus fuscus) ☐ Common Snapping Turtle (Carphophis amoenus) ☐ Southern Two-lined Salamander (Chelydra serpentina) ☐ Scarlet Snake1 (Cemophora coccinea) (Eurycea cirrigera) Box and Water Turtles ☐ Black Racer (Coluber constrictor) ☐ Three-lined Salamander ☐ Northern Painted Turtle ☐ Ring-necked Snake (Eurycea guttolineata) (Chrysemys picta) (Diadophis punctatus) ☐ Spring Salamander ☐ Spotted Turtle2, 6 (Clemmys guttata) ☐ Corn Snake (Pantherophis guttatus) (Gyrinophilus porphyriticus) ☐ River Cooter (Pseudemys concinna) ☐ Rat Snake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis) ☐ Slimy Salamander (Plethodon glutinosus) ☐ Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina) ☐ Eastern Hognose Snake ☐ Mud Salamander (Pseudotriton montanus) ☐ Yellow-bellied Slider (Trachemys scripta) (Heterodon platirhinos) ☐ Red Salamander (Pseudotriton ruber) ☐ Red-eared Slider3 ☐ Mole Kingsnake Newts (Trachemys scripta elegans) (Lampropeltis calligaster) ☐ Red-spotted Newt Mud and Musk Turtles ☐ Eastern Kingsnake
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Literature Cited in Lizards Natural History Database
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Lizard ID Guide
Lizards of Anderson County, TN Lizards are extraordinary gifts of nature. World-wide there are close to 6,000 species. The United States is home to more than100 native species, along with many exotic species that have become established, especially in Florida. Tennessee has 9 species, 6 of which are listed for Anderson County. Some are fairly widespread and easy to observe, such as the Common Five-lined Skink below. Unfortunately, the liberal use of pesticides, combined with predation by free roaming house cats have taken a heavy toll on our lizard populations. Most lizards are insect eating machines and their ecological services should be promoted through backyard and schoolyard wildlife habitat projects. Lizard watching is great fun, and over time, observers can gain interesting insights into lizard behavior. Your backyard may be a good place to start your lizarding career. This guide will be helpful for identifying our local lizards and will also provide you with examples of lizard behaviors to observe. Some species must be captured—this can be challenging—to insure accurate identification. Please see the back page for more resources. Lizarding Lizard watching, often referred to as lizarding, will likely never be as popular as bird watching (birding), but there is an advantage to being a “lizarder.” Unlike birders, you don’t need to be an early riser. Bright sunny days with warm temperatures are the keys for successful lizarding, but like birding, close-up binoculars are helpful. A lizard’s life centers around three performance activities: 1) avoiding predators, 2) feeding, and 3) reproduction. Lizard performance is all about optimal body temperature.
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Response of Reptile and Amphibian Communities to the Reintroduction of Fire T in an Oak/Hickory Forest ⁎ Steven J
Forest Ecology and Management 428 (2018) 1–13 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Forest Ecology and Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foreco Response of reptile and amphibian communities to the reintroduction of fire T in an oak/hickory forest ⁎ Steven J. Hromadaa, , Christopher A.F. Howeyb,c, Matthew B. Dickinsond, Roger W. Perrye, Willem M. Roosenburgc, C.M. Giengera a Department of Biology and Center of Excellence for Field Biology, Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, TN 37040, United States b Biology Department, University of Scranton, Scranton, PA 18510, United States c Ohio Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Studies, Department of Biological Sciences, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701, United States d Northern Research Station, U.S. Forest Service, Delaware, OH 43015, United States e Southern Research Station, U.S. Forest Service, Hot Springs, AR 71902, United States ABSTRACT Fire can have diverse effects on ecosystems, including direct effects through injury and mortality and indirect effects through changes to available resources within the environment. Changes in vegetation structure suchasa decrease in canopy cover or an increase in herbaceous cover from prescribed fire can increase availability of preferred microhabitats for some species while simultaneously reducing preferred conditions for others. We examined the responses of herpetofaunal communities to prescribed fires in an oak/hickory forest in western Kentucky. Prescribed fires were applied twice to a 1000-ha area one and four years prior to sampling, causing changes in vegetation structure. Herpetofaunal communities were sampled using drift fences, and vegetation attributes were sampled via transects in four burned and four unburned plots. Differences in reptile community structure correlated with variation in vegetation structure largely created by fires.
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Distal Urogenital Anatomy of Male Southern Coal Skinks, Plestiodon Anthracinus Pluvialis (Reptilia: Scincidae) Stanley E
Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science Volume 72 Article 5 2018 Distal Urogenital Anatomy of Male Southern Coal Skinks, Plestiodon anthracinus pluvialis (Reptilia: Scincidae) Stanley E. Trauth Arkansas State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas Part of the Education Commons, Life Sciences Commons, and the Medicine and Health Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Trauth, Stanley E. (2018) "Distal Urogenital Anatomy of Male Southern Coal Skinks, Plestiodon anthracinus pluvialis (Reptilia: Scincidae)," Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science: Vol. 72 , Article 5. Available at: https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol72/iss1/5 This article is available for use under the Creative Commons license: Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0). Users are able to read, download, copy, print, distribute, search, link to the full texts of these articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Distal Urogenital Anatomy of Male Southern Coal Skinks, Plestiodon anthracinus pluvialis (Reptilia: Scincidae) Cover Page Footnote I thank Dylan Ball for technical support. Lizard collection was authorized by a scientific oc llection permit from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. This article is available in Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science: https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol72/iss1/5 Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol.
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A Comparison of Maximum Sprint Speed Among the Five-Lined Skinks (Plestiodon) of the Southeastern United States at Ecologically Relevant Temperatures
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Ecography ECOG-03593 Tarr, S., Meiri, S., Hicks, J
Ecography ECOG-03593 Tarr, S., Meiri, S., Hicks, J. J. and Algar, A. C. 2018. A biogeographic reversal in sexual size dimorphism along a continental temperature gradient. – Ecography doi: 10.1111/ecog.03593 Supplementary material SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL A biogeographic reversal in sexual size dimorphism along a continental temperature gradient Appendix 1: Supplementary Tables and Figures Table A1. Placement of species missing from phylogeny. Species Comment Reference Most closely related to oaxaca and Campbell, J.A., et al. 2016. A new species of Abronia mixteca, most similar to mixteca Abronia cuetzpali (Squamata: Anguidae) from the Sierra Madre del Sur of according to Campbell et al. so add Oaxaca, Mexico. Journal of Herpetology 50: 149-156. as sister to mixteca Anolis alocomyos Both formerly part of tropidolepis, Köhler, G., et al. 2014. Two new species of the Norops & Anolis make a random clade with pachypus complex (Squamata, Dactyloidae) from Costa leditzigorum tropidolepis Rica. Mesoamerican Herpetology 1: 254–280. Part of a clade with microtus and Poe S, Ryan M.J. 2017. Description of two new species Anolis brooksi & ginaelisae so make a random clade similar to Anolis insignis (Squamata: Iguanidae) and Anolis kathydayae with these & brooksi & kathydayae, resurrection of Anolis (Diaphoranolis) brooksi. Amphibian based on Poe & Ryan. & Reptile Conservation 11: 1–16. Part of a clade with aquaticus and Köhler, J.J., et al. 2015. Anolis marsupialis Taylor 1956, a Anolis woodi so make a random clade with valid species from southern Pacific Costa Rica (Reptilia, marsupialis these Squamata, Dactyloidae). Zootaxa 3915111–122 Köhler, G., et al. 2016. Taxonomic revision of the Norops Anolis mccraniei, Formerly part of tropidonotus, so tropidonotus complex (Squamata, Dactyloidae), with the Anolis spilorhipis, split tropidonotus into a random resurrection of N.
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East Tennessee State University Digital Commons@ East
East Tennessee State University Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University Electronic Theses and Dissertations Student Works 5-2011 On The rC anial Osteology of Eremiascincus and Its Use For Identification. William B. Gelnaw East Tennessee State University Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.etsu.edu/etd Part of the Paleontology Commons Recommended Citation Gelnaw, William B., "On The rC anial Osteology of Eremiascincus and Its Use For Identification." (2011). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 1294. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/1294 This Thesis - Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Works at Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. On the Cranial Osteology of Eremiascincus, and Its Use for Identification ________________________________________ A thesis presented to the faculty of the department of Biological Sciences East Tennessee State University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Sciences in Biology _______________________________________ by William B. Gelnaw May 2011 _______________________________________ James Mead, Chair Blaine Schubert Stephen Wallace Keywords: Squamata, Morphometrics, Lizards, Skull ABSTRACT On the Cranial Osteology of Eremiascincus, and Its Use for Identification by William B. Gelnaw A persistent problem
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Critical Habitat Assessment and Recovery Plan for the Kansas State
Fort Hays State University FHSU Scholars Repository Master's Theses Graduate School Spring 2018 Critical Habitat Assessment and Recovery Plan for the Kansas State Threatened Broad-Headed Skink Allison Hullinger Fort Hays State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.fhsu.edu/theses Part of the Biology Commons Recommended Citation Hullinger, Allison, "Critical Habitat Assessment and Recovery Plan for the Kansas State Threatened Broad-Headed Skink" (2018). Master's Theses. 588. https://scholars.fhsu.edu/theses/588 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at FHSU Scholars Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of FHSU Scholars Repository. CRITICAL HABITAT ASSESSMENT AND RECOVERY PLAN FOR THE KANSAS STATE THREATENED BROAD-HEADED SKINK being A thesis presented to the Graduate Faculty of the Fort Hays State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science by Allison R. Hullinger B.S., Pittsburg State University Date __________________ Approved ___________________________ Major Professor Approved ___________________________ Chair, Graduate Council This thesis for the Master of Science Degree by Allison R. Hullinger has been approved _________________________________ Chair, Supervisory Committee _________________________________ Supervisory Committee _________________________________ Supervisory Committee _________________________________ Supervisory Committee __________________________________ Chair, Department of Biological Sciences i ABSTRACT The Broad-headed Skink (Plestiodon laticeps) is listed as threatened in the state of Kansas and protected under that Kansas Nongame and Endangered Species Conservation Act of 1975. It is also listed as a Tier I species in the State Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP) for Kansas.
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Critical Habitat Assessment and Recovery Plan for The
CRITICAL HABITAT ASSESSMENT AND RECOVERY PLAN FOR THE KANSAS STATE THREATENED BROAD-HEADED SKINK being A thesis presented to the Graduate Faculty of the Fort Hays State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science by Allison R. Hullinger B.S., Pittsburg State University Date __________________ Approved ___________________________ Major Professor Approved ___________________________ Chair, Graduate Council This thesis for the Master of Science Degree by Allison R. Hullinger has been approved _________________________________ Chair, Supervisory Committee _________________________________ Supervisory Committee _________________________________ Supervisory Committee _________________________________ Supervisory Committee __________________________________ Chair, Department of Biological Sciences i ABSTRACT The Broad-headed Skink (Plestiodon laticeps) is listed as threatened in the state of Kansas and protected under that Kansas Nongame and Endangered Species Conservation Act of 1975. It is also listed as a Tier I species in the State Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP) for Kansas. To be protected under the Kansas Nongame and Endangered Species Conservation Act of 1975, a Recovery Plan must be approved by the Secretary of the Kansas Department of Wildlife Parks and Tourism. An important part of the Recovery Plan requires defining critical habitat for the Broad-headed Skink. During the summers of 2015-2017, I performed standardized surveys across the known range of the Broad-headed Skink in eastern Kansas. I used drift fence arrays with funnel traps and performed visual encounter surveys (VES) to collect occurrence data on the Broad- headed Skink. I also performed a habitat assessment at each site. A Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) was used to determine which habitat variables explained the variation observed in the squamate assemblage in eastern Kansas.
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St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge Fish, Amphibian, Reptile and Mammal List
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Reptile Host Associations of Ixodes Scapularis in Florida and Implications for Borrelia Spp
pathogens Article Reptile Host Associations of Ixodes scapularis in Florida and Implications for Borrelia spp. Ecology Carrie De Jesus, Chanakya Bhosale, Kristen Wilson, Zoe White and Samantha M. Wisely * Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32603, USA; carriedejesus@ufl.edu (C.D.J.); cbhosale@ufl.edu (C.B.); knwilson@ufl.edu (K.W.); zseganish@ufl.edu (Z.W.) * Correspondence: wisely@ufl.edu Abstract: Host associations of the tick vector for Lyme Borreliosis, Ixodes scapularis, differ across its geographic range. In Florida, the primary competent mammalian host of Lyme disease is not present but instead has other small mammals and herpetofauna that I. scapularis can utilize. We investigated host–tick association for lizards, the abundance of ticks on lizards and the prevalence of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (sl). To determine which lizard species I. scapularis associates with, we examined 11 native lizard species from historical herpetological specimens. We found that (294/5828) of the specimens had attached ticks. The most infested species were Plestiodon skinks (241/1228) and Ophisaurus glass lizards (25/572). These species were then targeted at six field sites across Florida and sampled from June to September 2020, using drift fence arrays, cover boards and fishing. We captured 125 lizards and collected 233 immature I. scapularis. DNA was extracted from ticks and lizard tissue samples, followed by PCR testing for Borrelia spp. Of the captured lizards, 69/125 were infested with immature I. scapularis. We did not detect Borrelia spp. from tick or lizard tissue samples. Overall, we found that lizards are commonly infested with I.
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