Coeranoscincus reticulatus

[Fuscus]

You proberly havn't heard of this guy before, they are very rare and are listed on the IUCN red list ( http://www.redlist.org/search/details.php?species=5106 ). As you can see, these two are trying to take the species off the list

 

[Fuscus]

The end is in.
Repeat - the end is in

 

[peterescue]

I'm well aware of the species. have been trying toget my hands on some of the genus for a while.
Thanks for the pics. very much appreciated. GTPs bah, humbug.

 

[Pike01]

Good find mark, a pair mating.Ive seen a few of these guys before up around Lamington, but never Mating.

 

[craig.a.c]

Never heard of them.
Where are they found, and how big do they get?

Is it giving the other a love bite, or are they fighting?

 

[Fuscus]

Never heard of them.
Where are they found, and how big do they get?

Montane areas, mainly rainforest grafton to fraser island
About 200 mm.

Is it giving the other a love bite, or are they fighting?

Not fighting

 

[NinaPeas]

eek! That clears iit up then!

Do they have a yellow belly?

 

[Davem54]

Great stuff, real interesting .Whats that reddish thing in the last pic?? Is it part of the mating appartatus??

 

[bimbo]

my parents live in grafton and i remember finding a few similar looking fellas while diggin in the vegie patch. from memory they where a bit darker than the one in teh photo - would these be the same? pretty cool little guys

cheers
James

 

[peterescue]

Yeah, James, their colour and pattern varies.

 

[zen]

Great work to get pics of them mating Fuscus!

Few of us would have ever seen such an event in such an uncommon species.
So uncommon that it doesn't have a common name.

Thanks for putting the pics up. 8)

 

[NinaPeas]

Well, I think I used to catch them as a kid, again they were darker, and they stomach was either bright yellow or orange (same guys??)

 

[zen]

Where did you catch them Nina?

They're only found in far north-eastern NSW & south-eastern QLD.

Did you find them in & under rotting logs?

 

[NinaPeas]

humm, this was in SA. Yea, I used to find them under logs, and big rocks and in all the leaf litter and they would move almost like snake, and they were very shiny. Come to think of it, I think they were almost black.

 

[Fuscus]

Nina, what you were proberly seeing in SA were scalyfeet. There is a brown morph that will try and pretend that it is a snake. The photo ( from yorke penisula SA) shows one flicking its tongue and doing a not good enough version of a brown threatening me. Silly thing to do on a road.

Oh, and the pair doing the tango were near a rotten log.

 

[NinaPeas]

nah, that looks nothing like the ones I used to catch. They were really dark, very smooth (very tiny scales) and shiny, but you could plainly see their legs. Maybe about 80mm long or so. When I said they moved like a snake, when they were disturbed they would 'slither' away very quickly and try to get under something, but necer turn and face you.

 

[NinaPeas]

I just read you said they get to baout 200mm, I never found one over 100mm I dont think

 

[peterescue]

could be a Hemiergis or Lerista sp.

 

[Rossagon]

I'd be guessing that these are members of the three-toed skink family/genus. Some forms would be reasonably common along the east coast NSW ( only from what I have observed).

 

[zen]

Nina if you found yours in S.A they can't have been Coeranoscincus reticulatus.
James yours could have been though.

Nina, another possibility for what you found is Delma butleri or a species of Lerista like Peter suggested.

Fuscus, nice example of a lepidopodus doing the Psuedonaja dance.
I've also seen a Cyclodomorphus michaeli do a real good imitation of a Brown Snake.

:idea: Whilst on the subject of snake imitation I wonder if the Hooded Scaly Foot and Delma have evolved the black head and nape markings to appear more like a Brown as well.