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Juvenile skink's tails are bright blue, turning to grey in adulthood. In the breeding season reddish or orange color appears on the side of head and chin, and occasionally on the sides, tip, and underside of the tail. They usually have seven supralabial scales and four enlarged nuchals. Young skinks' colorations are more vivid than those of adults.
Other common names for P. fasciatus include blue-tailed skink (for juveniles) and red-headed skink (for adults). It is technically appropriate to call it the American five-lined skink to distinguish it from the African skink Trachylepis quinquetaeniata (otherwise known as five-lined mabuya) or the eastern red-headed skink to distinguish it from its western relative Plestiodon skiltonianus ...
The species is widely found in its native range and is considered common, often being seen in yards, or as the name implies, on fences. As the ventral abdomen of an adult is characteristically blue, it is also known as the blue-belly. Two western fence lizards have been reported with duplicated or forked tails, presumably following an autotomy. [2]
An adult male desert spiny lizard usually have conspicuous blue/violet patches on the belly and throat, and a green/blue color on their tails and sides. [4] Females and juveniles have large combined dark spots on their back and belly areas, and the blue/violet and green/blue coloring is absent.
Yellow-backed spiny lizard Uma inornata: Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard Uma notata: Colorado Desert fringe-toed lizard Uma scoparia: Mojave fringe-toed lizard Urosaurus graciosus: Long-tailed brush lizard Urosaurus nigricauda: Baja California brush lizard Urosaurus ornatus: Ornate tree lizard Uta stansburiana: Common side-blotched lizard
Breeding males are the colorful ones, with an orange or red head, indigo blue or black body, and a tail that is bluish white at the base with an orange middle segment and a black tip, the FWC said.
It reaches up to 45 cm (18 in) long including the tail, and has a flattened body with small, smooth, granular scales and slightly keeled scales near the tail. The head is bluish with red to orange colors around the eyes, yellow neck with blue spots and streaks. The back of the tail is gray blue with darker cross bars.
As mentioned earlier, lizards that lose their tails are at a greater risk of predation than lizards with their tails intact. Since social status is an important survival mechanism amongst side-blotched lizards, researchers have suggested that the loss of a tail, which contributes to a decrease in social status, forces tailless side-blotched ...