Five-lined skink
Plestiodon fasciatus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Status not recordedlizards
The five-lined skink (Plestiodon fasciatus) is a species in the family Scincidae, order Squamata. Recorded adults weigh about 6.7 g and reach 6.85 cm in length.
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Quick facts about the five-lined skink
- Weight
- 6.7 gsrc for Weight
- Length
- 6.63 cm – 6.85 cmsrc for Length
- Lifespan
- Not recorded
- Diet
- Carnivoresrc for Diet
- Longest recorded lifespan
- 6 years
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- forestsrc for Habitat
- Young per litter or clutch
- 2 – 20src for Young per litter or clutch
- Age at maturity
- 12 months – 2 yearssrc for Age at maturity
- Litters or clutches a year
- 1src for Litters or clutches a year
- Reproduction
- Eggssrc for Reproduction
- Active
- By day (diurnal)src for Active
- Conservation status
- Not recorded
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
How big is the five-lined skink?
What eats the five-lined skink?
Species recorded in published studies and collections.
Each pair is recorded by at least two independent datasets. A record shows the animal was seen or found to have eaten the other, including scavenged carcasses and young animals; it does not say how often. Compiled by Global Biotic Interactions (CC0 1.0).
References for these records
- Feeding ecology of the Milksnake (Lampropeltis triangulum, Colubridae) in the western United States. 2012. Journal of Herpetology 46(4): 515-522
- https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/170531276
Where does the five-lined skink live?
Not recorded
Is the five-lined skink endangered?
No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.
How is the five-lined skink classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classReptilia
- orderSquamata
- familyScincidae
- genusPlestiodon
- SpeciesPlestiodon fasciatus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms Eumeces fasciatus, Lacerta fasciata, Lacerta quinquelineata
Other names and names in other languages (13)
- American five-lined skinkEnglish
- Blue-tailed skinkEnglish
- Common five-lined skinkEnglish
- Red-headed skinkEnglish
- scink pruhovanýCzech
- Nordamerikansk Femstribet SkinkDanish
- FünfstreifenskinkGerman
- scinque pentaligneFrench
- イツスジトカゲJapanese
- Gestreepte skinkDutch
- Scynk paskowanyPolish
- Mabuia-de-cauda-azulPortuguese
- Плестиодон пятилинейчатыйRussian
Relatives of the five-lined skink
Other species in the same genus Plestiodon.
Great plains skink
Plestiodon obsoletus
Sand skink
Plestiodon reynoldsi
Mole skink
Plestiodon egregius
Okada's skink
Plestiodon latiscutatus
Bermuda skink
Plestiodon longirostris
Western skink
Plestiodon skiltonianus
CompareFive-lined skink vs Great plains skinkFive-lined skink vs Sand skinkFive-lined skink vs Mole skinkFive-lined skink vs Okada's skink
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
How big is the five-lined skink?
An adult five-lined skink weighs 6.7 g and measures 6.63 cm – 6.85 cm long, according to values recorded on Wikidata.
What kind of animal is the five-lined skink?
The five-lined skink (Plestiodon fasciatus) belongs to the family Scincidae in the order Squamata.
What eats the five-lined skink?
Animals recorded preying on the five-lined skink include milk snake. The records are compiled by Global Biotic Interactions from published studies; each pair is reported by at least two datasets.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-14. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Global Biotic Interactions (GloBI): interpreted data products · CC0 1.0 · 0.11
Poelen, J.H., Simons, J.D. & Mungall, C.J. (2014) Global Biotic Interactions: an open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics 24: 148–159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoinf.2014.08.005. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22691479, with each record's original reference. - ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles · CC BY 4.0 · v1-2
Oskyrko, O., Mi, C., Meiri, S. et al. (2024) ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data 11: 243. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03079-5. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24572683.v4 - SquamBase 1.0 - a dataset of squamate species traits · CC0 1.0 · 1.0-dryad-v5
Meiri, S. (2024) SquamBase - a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography 33(4): e13812. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13812. Data: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.76hdr7t3b - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Five-lined skink (Plestiodon fasciatus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/five-lined-skink
“Five-lined skink (Plestiodon fasciatus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/five-lined-skink.
@misc{five_lined_skink_2026,
title = {Five-lined skink (Plestiodon fasciatus)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/five-lined-skink},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-14}
}