This article is in need of a cleanup. You can help out Reptipedia by re-organizing parts of the article, checking grammar and spelling, and doing other helpful things to correct the article. |
The Pale-flecked Garden Sunskink or Common Garden Skink (Lampropholis guichenoti) is a small common skink often seen in suburban gardens in Melbourne and Sydney in Australia, but is common across most of Southern Australia and some of New South Wales.
Description
It grows to a maximum of 14 cm, but rarely exceeds a size of 9 cm. The females lay about six eggs in a communal clutch, which may contain as many as 250 eggs altogether. Like most other skinks, the tail will drop if grasped roughly. The tail then twitches vigorously for a while, to hold the attention of the predator while the lizard makes its escape. The Garden Skink is usually a browny black and sometimes may appear a dark shade of red when in the sun.
Diet
Garden skinks feed on small invertebrates including crickets, moths, slaters, earthworms, flies, grubs and caterpillars, grasshoppers, cockroaches, earwigs, slugs, small spiders, ladybeetles, ants and many others.They can also feed on fruit and vegetables, but the vegetables have to be cooked for the skink to be able to eat it. Skinks especially love bananas and strawberries etc. (citrus fruit). Garden skinks rely purely on the movement of their prey when hunting. If their prey is not moving, they will not see it as edible and will not strike. When hunting, the skinks will either hide and wait for prey to come by or actively pursue it (this depends on how hungry they are). Once they have caught their prey, they shake it around vigorously to kill it before swallowing it whole. Once they have had one meal, they begin to actively pursue prey for a short while with their new found energy. The skinks only need one prey item per 4 or 5 days, but will eat every day if conditions are good.
Habitat
They are often seen under leaves and long grass so that they can watch their prey, they also love hiding in logs where their big predators can't get them. As all reptiles are cold blooded, you may see them on top of rocks or paths in the morning trying to warm their blood. Skinks enjoy large areas with a lot of leaves and soft dirt. You normally find them around hot and dusty areas that have lots of trees and stumps.
Predators
The Garden Skink's predators are mainly birds even tiny birds like robins are a threat to skinks. Sometimes bigger lizards and snakes will try to eat them as well.
References
Template:Commons
Template:Unreferenced
Template:Skink-stub
Template:Australia-stub