Reptilia · Squamata
Eutropis multifasciataKuhl, 1820
Javan Sun Skink
Photograph by Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA, via Wikimedia Commons
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A ground-dwelling, day-active, meat-eating skink from the Oriental region, reaching 140 mm snout to vent.
Also called Common Sun Skink, East Indian Brown Mabuya, Many-lined Sun Skink.
Once published as Mabuya multifasciata — those names reach this page.
Reptilia › Squamata › Scincidae › Eutropis
- Grows to
- 140mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 8years
Longer than 91% of all skinks anyone has measured.
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
45 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
- 2018
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Longest recorded life
- 8years
- Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured
- 31.4–32.5°C89–91 °F
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 32.25°C90 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 30.8–33.7°C87–93 °F
5 (Alcala 1966), 8 (http://www.lesdragonsdasgard.com/t1553-golden-skink-care-sheet-by-anthony)
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 140mm5.5 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 104.4mm4 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 104.4mm4 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 38mm1.5 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 38mm1.5 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 61.17g2.2 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 1.14g0.04 oz
max 140 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)
snout-vent length; the source column mixes this with straight carapace length
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- How it hunts
- Active foraging
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Terrestrial
- Habitat
- Forest, Savanna, Shrubland
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
- Active season · months of the year
- 12months
- Region
- Oriental
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 2000m
- Range size
- 6,096,931km²
- Density · lowest recorded
- 15.6per hectare
Arthropods and small lizards (Das 2004, Auffenberg and Auffenberg 1988, Alcala 1966) and frogs (Ahmed et al. 2009), arthropods and small vertebrates (Ngo et al. 2014, Deuti et al. 2020), snails and insects (Pauwels et al. 2000), insects (Das and Das 2017), crab (Sy 2018), juvenile Eutropis (Binaday and Sarmiento 2020)
Ngo et al. 2014; also deduced from Auffenberg and Auffenberg 1988, Alcala 1966
(e.g.,Das and Bhattacharjee 2005, Vassilieva et al. 2016, Das and Das 2017, Harikrishnan and Vasudevan 2018, Deuti et al. 2020, Jenssen and Sy 2022)/ diurnal and crepusculr (Chan-ard et al. 2015)
Terrestrial and Leaf Litter (e.g., Deuti et al. 2020)/ on Pulao Tenggol also arboreal (Grismer 2011), terrestrial - but a good climber (Vassilieva et al. 2016), terrestrial (Das and Das 2017, Harikrishnan and Vasudevan 2018), terrestrial (Foster et al. 2018), terrestrial and arboreal (Jenssen and Sy 2022)
below 1000 (Deuti et al. 2020), max 1800 (Jenssen and Sy 2022)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Viviparous
- Sex decided by
- Genes, XX/XY
- Average clutch
- 4.9eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 1–10eggs
- Mean clutch
- 3.8–6eggs
- Clutches in a year
- 2.5per year
- Clutches a year
- 1–4per year
- First breeds at
- 11–12months
(e.g., Alcala 1966, Deuti et al. 2020), ovovoiviparous (Das and Das 2017)
ovoviviparous, 2-10 young (Ahmed et al. 2009), / oviparous, 2-4 eggs (Auffenberg 1980), 2-7, mean 5.39 embrios (Alcala 1966), 2-9 (Du et al. 2012), 3-5, mean 3.8 neonates (Goldberg 2013), 3-9, mean 5.2 (Sun et al. 2012), 1-10 (Vassilieva et al. 2016), 2-10 (Das and Das 2017, Deuti et al. 2020)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Scincoidea
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Kuhl
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1820
- Type locality
- Indonesia
Keeping one
22 in × 22 in × 14 in(56 × 56 × 35 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes ground-dwelling species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times snout-vent length.
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 5.5 in (140 mm), at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
In a laboratory thermal gradient this species settled at 89–91 °F (31.4–32.5 °C).
Preferred body temperature, recorded in a laboratory gradient where the animal could choose freely. 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.
8kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 61 g, the heaviest recorded for Javan Sun 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 · nose to tail
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · a typical adult
- — Body mass · adult female, mean
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — 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
- — Red List criteria
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
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). Eutropis multifasciata. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/eutropis-multifasciata
@misc{eutropis_multifasciata_2026,
title = {Eutropis multifasciata},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/eutropis-multifasciata}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
- Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.