Herpetofauna: One Life's List

Eumeces laticeps
Broadhead Skink

Washington Co., Missouri
Spring 1977

There is a certain hollow log I know of, at angles off the ground with one end caught in the crook of another tree.  It rests beside a swampy pond, covered with duckweed, and a small number of Broadhead Skinks live inside the log.  Try to get close enough for a picture and you can spend all day playing hide n' seek with lizards; get too close and the Broadheads dash off in a straight line, right across the top of  the duckweed!  Males have the much bigger head, which is a bright orange or red during the spring mating season.  Any time I run across an old barn or abandoned wooden building I look for laticeps; it's a habitat of choice for them.

 Adult male Five-Lined Skinks (Eumeces fasciatus) resemble male Broadheads, but are smaller in stature and their heads are a bit smaller proportionally ( laticeps also has five upper labial scales, where fasciatus has four).