Reptile & Amphibian Forums

http://s189.photobucket.com/albums/z38/JackAsp/
All the previous owner knew her as was a "Solomon Islands Skink" and she certainly isn't a monkeytail. She's a diurnal burrowing insectivore, very fast when she wants to be but obviously used to people, and was raised on cat food for two years. Flickery black tongue, large earholes, small black legs, pink underside, red irises, snout to vent length of six or seven inches, tail another ten inches, and I'm having a hell of a time getting specific information on her!

Link

-----
0.1 Coastal Carpet (Boots)
0.1 Western Hognose (Bebe)
0.1 Cane Toad (Hengo)
0.1 Solomon Islands Ground Skink (Minerva)

It certainly doesn't look at all like what a Solomon Islands Skink is described in the link below:

www.calzoo.com/html/solomonislandskinks.html

These skinks are much larger, reaching lengths of up to 32", are arboreal with a prehensile tail. You describe yours as about 16" long and a burrowing skink.

As Eugongylus is a family of skinks...hard to say what yours is. Some better pictures showing the entire body will help. Also, is the tail prehensile? It may be a type of monkey tail skink as there are a few of them.

The pattern looks similar to that found on many blue tongue skinks though yours definitely isn't one. The tail isn't right, most blue tongue skinks have much shorter stocky tails. At first I thought alligator lizard but the head isn't right for that.

Sorry if I wasn't much help but getting a proper name for lizards we buy makes the difference on being able to provide the proper care. I know you bought it as a Solomon Island Skink which probably is wrong...as monkey tailed skinks are arboreal and herbivores, not insectivores at all. Unless it is eating cat food and burrowing because it has no other choice (ie improper diet and habitat by the previous owner.
-----
PHLdyPayne

I took your advice and added some full-body pictures. Don't let the one fool you; the inside of her mouth is pink but the tongue itself is long and black. I kept taking pictures but she kept flicking it back in faster than my camera could click. Also, I was surprised today to discover that her tail is slightly prehensile. She doesn't use it as much as a monkey-tail would, and she certainly doesn't have that tortoise-face that monkeytails have, but there was one second when she was climbing down from my hand to my elbow and must have lost her grip a litle. She immediately grabbed my wrist with her tail and gripped it for a second, then went back to using it like any normal lizard would. So I'm thinking maybe I should add more branches. I've seen Eugongylus rufescens, which is one of the possibilities, described as both arboreal and fossorial, so I imagine it's a bit of both, but even that doesn't say much. There are lot of types of behavior that those descriptions can apply to, you know?
-----
0.1 Coastal Carpet (Boots)
0.1 Western Hognose (Bebe)
0.1 Cane Toad (Hengo)
0.1 Solomon Islands Ground Skink (Minerva)

Yes, this is a Eugongylus. I have one and I also have a monkey-tail. Minerva is a Eugongylus albofasciolatus. There was a Reptiles mag article about these guys a few months ago. Beautiful creatures. (the species is spelled wrong on my sig)
-----
Lisa Rakestraw
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1 Corucia zebrata
6 Egernia striolata
1 Eugongylus albofasciata
1 Eumeces schneideri

Thanks. I'd already identified her using the McCoy book, but I hadn't known about that magazine article. I'll find an issue. She seems to be doing okay in a pretty standard large terrarium, but I want to get all the information I can on her species.
-----
0.1 Coastal Carpet (Boots)
0.1 Western Hognose (Bebe)
0.1 Cane Toad (Hengo)
0.1 Solomon Islands Ground Skink (Minerva)