TerralogNEWS101
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Backarched likea cat and tail curled in: this juvenileEmoia cyanura feels threatened.
Adultmaleand female (small photoabove) of Emoia cyanura.
atnight).Barkshouldbegluedtoall thewalls
of the terrarium so that the skinks canclimb
upanddown them. Byday the temperature
gradient in the terrarium should range from
around 23 °C (at thebottom) toabout30 °C
(below the cover). A spot-lamp should
provide a localized temperature of
approximately35 °C.
Problem-free feeding
Tree skinks have no special requirements
when it comes to feeding.All theusual food
insects are accepted happily. They should
always be dusted with a calcium- vitamin
mix.Inaddition it ishighlyadvisabletofitaUV
lamp in the terrarium.
Sexualdimorphism
As with verymany lizards,male tree skinks
can readily be identified by their thickened
hemipenis sacs. In the Emerald Tree Skink
there isa further reliabledifferencebetween
the sexes: males have a large, strikingly
colored (yellow or orange) scale on the
undersideofthethigh,aswellasyellowscales
on the heels. These egg-laying lizards are
fairly tolerant of one another, including the
males – something that cannot be taken for
granted inskinks!
Island-hoppingdwarfskinks
The dainty blue-tailed dwarf skinks of the
genus
Emoia
are a quite different kettle of
fish.Therearetwosiblingspeciesthatcannot
be told apart on the basis of appearance
alone,specifically
E.cyanura
and
E.impar
.They
alsooccur in thesamegeographicalareas,so
that in this case the source of the lizards is
unfortunately no help. It is, however, very
important todistinguishbetween them,as
E.
cyanura
isan inhabitantofopenterrainand
E.
impar
lives inwoodland. Thismeans that
E.
cyanura
has a higher temperature
requirement than
E. impar
.Thebest solution
is to initially house these little reptiles (the
head-body lengthmeasures4-6cm,plus the
tail,which ismuch longer than thebody) ina
relatively large terrariumandprovidevarious
“sunny” spots. Once you know what
temperature range the lizardsprefer to seek
out in order to achieve their “working
temperature”, these conditions can be
reproduced inasmaller terrarium,ifdesired.
Emoia cyanura
is one of the commonest
lizards of thePacific islands and is foundon
practically every island as long as it has an
areaofmore thanaroundahectare.It is thus
a true island-hopper, as it can be found
everywhere from theBismarck Islands in the
west toPolynesia in theeast.
Reproduction takesplacevia twoeggs,which
canbe laidatany timeof theyear.These little
lizardsaren’ttiedtoanyparticularbiotope,but
