The desert rainbow-skink (''Carlia triacantha'') is an Australian

skink Skinks are lizards belonging to the family Scincidae, a family in the infraorder Scincomorpha. With more than 1,500 described species across 100 different taxonomic genera, the family Scincidae is one of the most diverse families of lizards. S ...

in the genus ''

Carlia ''Carlia'' is a genus of skinks, commonly known as four-fingered skinks or rainbow skinks, in the subfamily Eugongylinae. Before being placed in this new subfamily, ''Carlia'' was recovered in a clade with the genera ''Niveoscincus'', ''Lampr ...

'', commonly known as four-fingered skinks, from the subfamily

Lygosominae Lygosominae is the largest subfamily of skinks in the family Scincidae. The subfamily can be divided into a number of genus groups. If the rarely used taxonomic rank of infrafamily is employed, the genus groups would be designated as such, but ...

. It is

native Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and enterta ...

to desert woodland regions throughout most of the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Au ...

, the north of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to ...

, and the far north-west of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

. It was originally classified as ''

Leiolopisma ''Leiolopisma'' is a genus of skinks. Most species occur in the region of New Caledonia- New Zealand, and they are related to other genera from that general area, such as '' Emoia''; these and others form the '' Eugongylus'' group. One living ...

triacantha'', and is sometimes known as the three-spined rainbow-skink.

Description

The desert rainbow-skink is on average long, excluding the tail. It is characterised by three keels or spines on the dorsal scales. It is typically a mid-brown to grey-brown colour with less pigmentation on the ventral surface, but males display extra colouration, particularly during breeding season. Desert rainbow-skinks shelter in

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...

leaf litter Plant litter (also leaf litter, tree litter, soil litter, litterfall or duff) is dead plant material (such as leaves, bark, needles, twigs, and cladodes) that have fallen to the ground. This detritus or dead organic material and its constituent ...

, feeding mainly on

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

s. Their large eyes help them to see their prey in the dim lighting of the leaf litter, and the eyes are covered by an eyelid with a transparent window that protects the eye while burrowing in the litter.

Reproduction

The desert rainbow-skink is an egg-laying or

oviparous Oviparous animals are animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive method of most fish, amphibians, most reptiles, and all pterosaurs, dinosaurs (including birds), a ...

reptile. It has an average

clutch A clutch is a mechanical device that engages and disengages power transmission, especially from a drive shaft to a driven shaft. In the simplest application, clutches connect and disconnect two rotating shafts (drive shafts or line shafts ...

size of two eggs. During breeding season males of the species display blue-green colouring on the head and red flanks.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2939127 Carlia Reptiles described in 1953 Skinks of Australia Taxa named by Francis John Mitchell