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Together with the Great Plains skink it is the largest of the "Plestiodon skinks", growing from a total length of 15 cm (5.9 in) to nearly 33 cm (13 in). A male broad-headed skink, illustration from Holbrook's North American Herpetology, 1842. The broad-headed skink gets its name from the wide jaws, giving the head a triangular appearance.
The broad-headed skink, P. laticeps, is similar, and may be difficult to distinguish from P. fasciatus. The former species usually lacks the two enlarged postlabial scales characteristic of P. fasciatus. [7] [8] Adult male broad-headed skinks, with their large size and swollen red head, are readily distinguished from P. fasciatus. [9]
It is a four-lined skink whose light stripes extend onto the tail. The broad dark lateral stripe is 4–4.5 scales wide and there are no light lines on top of the head. The dorsolateral light stripe is on the edges of the 3rd and 4th scale rows, counting from midline of back. One postmental scale is present.
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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.
They typically weigh less than 2.5lb and have a compact body, short neck, and broad head with a round face. It’s certainly a cute little bunny but this brachycephalic head shape can cause dental ...
The middle stripe tends to be narrower than the others, and the dark areas between stripes are black in young skinks but become brown with age. A similar lizard, the common five-lined skink (Plestiodon fasciatus), is slightly smaller than the southeastern five-lined skink and has broader stripes. However, it is difficult to discriminate between ...
Other large members in the genus Plestiodon are a broad-headed skink (Plestiodon laticeps) and a Great Plains skink (Plestiodon obsoletus) with a maximum length of 32.4 cm (12.8 in) [163] and 34.9 cm (13.7 in) [164] and a SVL 14.3 cm (5.6 in) [163] and 14 cm (5.5 in) [165] respectively. The genus Chalcides includes many legless or almost ...