Produced by Chris Curnow, Tom Cosmas, Joseph Cooper and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net Transcriber's Note - Text Emphasis _Text_ - Italic UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Volume 8, No. 1, pp. 1-156, 2 pls., 26 figs. in text, 17 tables September 1, 1954 Life History and Ecology of the Five-lined Skink, Eumeces fasciatus BY HENRY S. FITCH UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS LAWRENCE 1954 UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, A. Byron Leonard, Robert W. Wilson Volume 8, No. 1, pp. 1-156, 2 pls., 26 figs. in text, 17 tables Published September 1, 1954 UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Lawrence, Kansas PRINTED BY FERD VOILAND, JR., STATE PRINTER TOPEKA, KANSAS 1954 25-3559 LIFE HISTORY AND ECOLOGY OF THE FIVE-LINED SKINK, EUMECES FASCIATUS By Henry S. Fitch Introduction The common five-lined skink (or common blue-tailed skink) is a small woodland lizard, abundantly and widely distributed over the eastern United States. Many authors have casually discussed this lizard or have treated in detail some phase of its biology. Excellent brief summaries of the known facts concerning its life history have been published by Smith (1946:349-350 and 1950:187-188) and Pope (1947:153-157). Nevertheless, no thoroughgoing study of its life history and ecology has heretofore been made. In 1932, taxonomic studies by Dr. Edward H. Taylor revealed that the lizards previously referred to in the literature as _Eumeces fasciatus_, actually were three closely related and similar, partly sympatric species. Although Taylor's work was careful and detailed, and indicated numerous minor differences by which the three species could be distinguished, many herpetologists were reluctant to accept his findings for nearly a decade thereafter. Consequently a large amount of literature concerning five-lined skinks is either obviously composite in the sense that it is based upon two or three species, or is not definitely assignable to any one species. In the study here reported upon, all pertinent literature available to me has been examined, and evaluated, and important findings of other authors have been incorporated in the discussion. However, mine was primarily a field study, and in one small part of the geographic range of the one species.