All Angles Creatures
Squamata · ScincidaeEntry 4,895 of 21,572
Barred-sided Skink, Concinnia tenuis

Reptilia · Squamata

Concinnia tenuisGray, 1831

Barred-sided Skink

Photograph by Sofia Zvolanek, CC BY, via iNaturalist

A day-active, omnivorous skink from the Australo-Pacific region, reaching 85 mm snout to vent.

Also called Bar-sided Forest-skink.

Once published as Eulamprus tenuis — those names reach this page.

ReptiliaSquamataScincidaeConcinnia

Grows to
85mm
greatest recorded
Eats
Omnivorous
Active
Diurnal
Lives
Arboreal, saxicolous
Body length across Scincidae

Longer than 64% of all skinks anyone has measured.

64% of 1,710 species are smaller36% larger
24 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest500 mm

The bar is the rank itself: its length is the share of the family this animal exceeds. The chart below is the family’s real spread, on a logarithmic scale because body length here runs from 24 to 500 mm. The solid rule is this animal. Every bar is a count of real species, and nothing on this figure is estimated.

What is known

33 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.

Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.

Standing in the world

Still living
Extant
Conservation status
Least Concern
Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
2017
Population trend
Stable

The animal itself

Limbs
Four legs
Venomous
No
Fangs
None
Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
27°C81 °F

mean body temperature of active individuals in nature

Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
27°C

body temperature of active animals in nature

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
85mm3.25 in

max 85 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)

Length snout to vent · adult female mean
76.8mm3 in
Largest female · snout to vent
76.8mm3 in

snout-vent length; the source column mixes this with straight carapace length

Body mass · greatestcomputed
12.77g0.45 oz

computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed

How it lives

Diet
Omnivorous

Invertebrates / omnivore (Rodda 2020)

Active
Diurnal

Diurnal and Crepuscular and nocturnal (Greer 1992) / Diurnal (Swan et al. 2017, Steve Wilson & Brendan Schembri, pers. comm. To Jules Farquhar April 2020), Glenn Shea, pers. comm. (April 2020): "Primarily diurnal/crepuscular. Activity at night is likely to be unusual. "

Where it lives
Arboreal, saxicolous

Arboreal and Saxicolous / Arboreal (Swan et al. 2017)

Habitat
Forest
Biome
Temperate Broadleaf & Mixed Forests
Region
Australo-Pacific
Mainland or island
Mainland
Elevation · above sea level
302–1080m
Range size
502,709km²

Breeding

Reproduction
Viviparous
Average clutch
4.7eggs
Eggs or young per clutch
3–7eggs

3-7 (Brown 2012)

Mean clutch
4–5.4eggs

Naming and history

Suborder
Sauria
Infraorder
Scincoidea
Subspecies
No
Described by
Gray
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
Yes
Described in
1831
Type locality
Australia

Keeping one

13.5 in × 13.5 in × 13.5 in(34 × 34 × 34 cm)

Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.

The standard sizes ground species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 and climbing species at 4 × 2.5 × 4 times snout-vent length.

Recorded both on the ground and climbing, so this is the larger of the two rules in every dimension.

Lives on rock, so stable hard surfaces and basking ledges suit it.

Mindestanforderungen an die Haltung von Reptilien (Sachverständigengutachten), German Federal Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture and Forestry, Animal Welfare Division, 10 January 1997. The standard states these floor areas are recommendations rather than binding limits.

From this animal’s own snout-vent length of 3.25 in (85 mm), at 4 × 4 × 4 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.

Active animals measured in the wild averaged 81 °F (27 °C).

Mean body temperature of active individuals measured in nature. A measurement of the animal, not a setting for a thermostat.

Feeding

A prey item should be no wider than the space between the animal's eyes.

Widely used across reptile husbandry references. The stated reason is that the gap approximates the width of the throat, so wider prey is associated with impaction. This is established practice, not a measurement.

2kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 13 g, the heaviest recorded for Barred-sided Skink — so it is the top of the range, not a figure for a particular animal. Weigh yours and the number will be lower.

An upper estimate, not a feeding target, and not veterinary advice. The equation covers only what an animal burns staying alive, so a growing, gravid or recovering animal needs more — and it was measured on wild animals, which move far more than one in an enclosure. Body condition and a vet who knows the species are what a feeding decision should rest on. Where this comes from.

What nobody knows

These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.

  • Length snout to vent · adult male mean
  • Length snout to vent · adult mean
  • Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
  • Female length · mean, nose to tail
  • Length nose to tail · adult male mean
  • Length nose to tail · adult mean
  • Largest male · snout to vent
  • Largest female · shell length
  • Largest male · shell length
  • Hatchling length · snout to vent
  • Hatchling length · nose to tail
  • Largest juvenile · snout to vent
  • Largest juvenile · shell length
  • Egg length
  • Egg width
  • Body mass · a typical adult
  • Body mass · adult female, mean
  • Body mass at hatching
  • Longest recorded life
  • Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
  • Eats arthropods
  • Eats vertebrates
  • Eats plant matter
  • How it hunts
  • How the young develop
  • Gestation or incubation
  • Clutches in a year
  • Clutches a year · fewest
  • Clutches a year · most
  • First breeds from · youngest recorded
  • First breeds by · oldest recorded
  • Hatchling length · smallest recorded
  • Hatchling length · largest recorded
  • Age at first breeding · female
  • Mature from · youngest recorded
  • Mature by · oldest recorded
  • Size at maturity · smallest recorded
  • Size at maturity · largest recorded
  • Colour on the back
  • Pattern on the back
  • Pupil
  • Sex decided by
  • Red List criteria
  • Active season · shortest recorded
  • Active season · longest recorded
  • Density · lowest recorded
  • Density · highest recorded
  • Home range · largest recorded
  • Active in

Others in Scincidae

Take this data

Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.

This species as JSON · the whole dataset

Cite this page

The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Concinnia tenuis. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/concinnia-tenuis

@misc{concinnia_tenuis_2026,
  title  = {Concinnia tenuis},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/concinnia-tenuis}
}

Sources

  1. Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
  2. Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
  3. Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.