Reptiles

Five-lined Skink

Plestiodon fasciatus · also called American five-lined skink, blue-tailed skink, red-headed scorpion

Least Concern → carnivore Temperate forest

The commonest lizard in a lot of eastern American backyards is a sleek, striped skink that vanishes into the woodpile as a blue streak. In the South it has a fearsome reputation as a venomous scorpion. It is neither venomous nor a scorpion, and the blue streak is the whole trick.

Overview

Plestiodon fasciatus ranges across the eastern United States into southern Ontario, in moist woodland, forest edges, and gardens with logs, rocks, and old buildings for cover. It is a fast, day-active hunter of insects and spiders.

The changing colours

Juveniles are black with five cream stripes and a bright blue tail. As the skink matures the pattern fades to plain brown; breeding males grow an orange-red head, while females keep faint stripes.

The blue-tail decoy

A predator strikes the vivid, wriggling tail, which snaps off and keeps thrashing while the skink escapes. The replacement grows back shorter and duller.

A lizard that guards eggs

Unusually for a lizard, the female coils around her clutch of about 15 eggs for the whole incubation, warming and defending them until they hatch.

Status

Least Concern and common, adaptable to suburban yards with cover. The southern “scorpion” venom myth is entirely false.

Five-lined Skink: common questions

Is a five-lined skink venomous or dangerous?

No. The five-lined skink has no venom, no stinger, and no dangerous bite. It is a small insect-eating lizard that is completely harmless to people. The persistent southern folk name scorpion, and the belief that its bite or the touch of its tail can poison a person or a farm animal, has no basis at all. If a five-lined skink is cornered it may give a quick nip that can just about be felt, and then it will try to run, usually leaving its tail behind. The one grain of truth in the toxicity stories is that a cat which eats a skink can become wobbly for a day, but even that passes.

Why do young five-lined skinks have blue tails?

The blue tail is a survival device that works by sacrifice. In a young skink the tail is coloured to be the most eye-catching part of the body, so a bird, snake, or cat aims its strike there rather than at the head. The tail then detaches at a pre-weakened point and continues to twitch and flip vigorously for several minutes, holding the predator's attention while the skink slips away. The lizard regrows a replacement, though it is usually shorter, blunter, and duller, supported by a rod of cartilage rather than bone. As the skink matures and gets better at simply avoiding danger, the blue fades.

How can I tell a five-lined skink from other skinks?

Across most of its range the main confusion is with the broad-headed skink and the southeastern five-lined skink, which are very similar. A young five-lined skink shows five light stripes, the central one forking on the head, and a blue tail. Breeding males have an orange-red head. The broad-headed skink is larger, with a proportionately wider, more triangular head, and the middle of the three head stripes usually does not fork the same way. Precise identification sometimes comes down to counting scale rows, but a striped, blue-tailed skink in an eastern woodland garden is most often this species.

Do five-lined skinks make good pets?

They are not an ideal pet. They are fast, easily stressed, and prone to dropping their tails when handled, and they do not tame the way a leopard gecko or blue-tongued skink does. They also have specific needs — a warm basking spot, UVB lighting, humidity, cover to hide in, and a varied diet of live insects. Wild-caught animals often carry parasites and adjust poorly to captivity, and in some areas collecting them is restricted. They are best enjoyed as a garden animal, watched as they bask on a woodpile or a warm rock.

Sources & further reading

Written by HideShark Editorial Team · reviewed by HideShark Science Desk. Published October 5, 2026. Last updated October 5, 2026.

Quick facts

Scientific name: Plestiodon fasciatus
Diet: Insects, spiders, and other small invertebrates such as crickets, beetles, grasshoppers, and caterpillars, hunted actively by day among leaf litter, logs, and rock piles
The blue tail is a decoy: Juveniles are black with five cream stripes and a vivid blue tail; predators strike at the bright, wriggling tail, which snaps off and keeps thrashing while the skink escapes, then slowly regrows
The colours change with age and sex: As the skink matures the stripes and blue fade to plain brownish; breeding males develop a bright orange-red head and jaws, while females keep faint stripes and a grey-brown tail
Wrongly called a scorpion: In parts of the southern United States it is called the scorpion or red-headed scorpion and believed to have a venomous sting or bite; this is a complete myth, as the skink has no venom and its small bite is harmless
A rare lizard that guards its eggs: The female lays around 15 eggs in a rotting log or under a rock and coils around them for the four to seven weeks of incubation, turning them, warming them, and defending them, then leaves once they hatch
Fast and hard to catch: It is quick, wary, and slips into cracks and under bark at speed, and it drops its tail readily, so it is often seen only as a blue flash disappearing into a woodpile
Mildly toxic to cats: Cats that catch and eat five-lined skinks sometimes suffer temporary loss of balance and coordination; the effect is short-lived and the cause is not fully understood
Range: The eastern United States from New England and southern Ontario south to northern Florida and west to Wisconsin, Kansas, and eastern Texas, in moist woodland, forest edges, rocky hillsides, and around old buildings, stumps, and woodpiles.
Conservation status: Least Concern → ≈ Common and widespread across the eastern United States and just into southern Ontario, adaptable to woodland edges, gardens, and suburban yards with cover, and not considered at risk in the wild