Reproductive Cycle of the Western Skink, Eumeces Skiltonianus (Sauria: Scincidae), In Southern California (General NOTES‪)‬

The western skink, Eumeces skiltonianus, ranges from southern British Columbia to the tip of Baja California and occurs from sea level to 2,530 m (Stebbins 2003). Most of the information on E. skiltonianus reproduction is in Tanner (1943; 1957) who studied Utah specimens. Other information is in Van Denburgh (1922), Rodgers & Memmler (1943), Smith (1946), Stebbins (1954), Dixon (1967), Punzo (1982) and Fitch (1985). The biology of E. skiltonianus is summarized in Tanner (1988). The purpose of this paper is to provide information on the reproductive cycle of E. skiltonianus from southern California based on histological examination of gonadal materials from museum specimens and to compare the timing of the reproductive cycle with Utah as reported by Tanner (1943; 1957). This paper contains the first histological examination of the reproductive cycle in E. skiltonianus. Fifty-two males (mean snout-vent length, SVL = 59.8 mm [+ or -] 6.4 SD, range = 49-78 mm), forty-one females (mean SVL = 63.1 mm [+ or -] 7.2 SD, range = 49-76 mm) and twelve juveniles (mean SVL = 24.7 mm [+ or -] 1.7 SD, range = 23-27 mm) E. skiltonianus from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (LACM) and the San Diego Society of Natural History (SDSNH) were examined. Eumeces skiltonianus is most often observed from March to June (Stebbins 1954) which explains the small numbers of this species in collections from later in the year.