Appearance
Together with the Great Plains skink it is the largest of the "''Plestiodon'' skinks", growing from a total length of 15 cm to nearly 33 cm .The broad-headed skink gets its name from the wide jaws, giving the head a triangular appearance. Adult males are brown or olive brown in color and have bright orange heads during the mating season in spring. Females have five light stripes running down the back and the tail, similar to the Five-lined Skink. Juveniles are dark brown or black and also striped and have blue tails.
Behavior
Broad-headed skinks are the most arboreal of the North American ''Plestiodon''. They forage on the ground, but also easily and often climb trees for shelter, to sleep, or to search for food.
Habitat
Although they do occur in urban areas, their preferred habitat is humid forest areas with abundant leaf litter, especially oak forests.
Reproduction
Males typically are larger than females. The larger the female, the more eggs she will lay. Males thus often try to mate with the largest female they can find, and they sometimes engage in severe fights with other males over access to a female. The female lays between 8 and 22 eggs, which she guards and protects until they hatch in June or July. The hatchlings have a total length of 6 centimetres to 8 centimetres .Defense
These skinks are sometimes wrongly thought to be venomous. Broad-headed skinks are nonvenomous.References:
Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.
