Reptilia · Squamata
Lamprolepis smaragdinaLesson, 1829
Emerald Skink
Photograph by libby hepburn, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A tree-dwelling, day-active, omnivorous skink from the Oriental region, reaching 122 mm snout to vent.
Also called Green Tree Skink.
Once published as Dasia smaragdina — those names reach this page.
Reptilia › Squamata › Scincidae › Lamprolepis
- Grows to
- 121.5mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Omnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 5years
Longer than 88% 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
42 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
- 2019
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Longest recorded life
- 5years
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 30.3°C87 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 30.3°C
Alcala 1966
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 121.5mm4.75 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 89mm3.5 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 89mm3.5 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 36mm1.5 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 36mm1.5 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 39.2g1.4 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 0.99g0.03 oz
Shai Meiri, unpublished
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
- Omnivorous
- How it hunts
- Active foraging
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Arboreal
- Habitat
- Forest, Shrubland
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
- Region
- Oriental
- Mainland or island
- Found only on islands
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 1000m
- Range size
- 892,244km²
- Density
- 47.8–86.4per hectare
mostly animal matter (McCoy 1980, 11% plants, Cooper and Vitt 2002)/ Omnivorous (Pianka and Vitt 2003) / invertebrates, vertebrates and fruit (Crombie and Pregill 1999) / arthropods geckos and skinks, 11.5% fruit - but no fruit on Negros (Auffenberg and Auffenberg 1988) / arthropods (Bailey 1976), arthropods and geckos (Alcala 1966), see Zug 2013, insects, sometimes other lizards (Buden and Taborosi 2016), omnivore (Rodda 2020), arthropods (Camino et al. 2023 who think plant ingestion may be accidental)
deduced from Auffenberg and Auffenberg 1988, Alcala 1966
e.g., Buden and Taborosi 2016
e.g., Buden and Taborosi 2016, Foster et al. 2018, Karin et al. 2018, Meneses et al. 2022
700-1000/1100 (David et al. 2006)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 2.05eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 1–6eggs
- Mean clutch
- 1.9–2.2eggs
- Clutches in a year
- 1.05per year
- Clutches a year
- 1–1.09per year
- First breeds at
- 9–13months
one or two, mean 1.9 (Auffenberg and Auffenberg 1989), 2 (Alcala 1966)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Scincoidea
- Subspecies
- Lamprolepis smaragdina acutirostre (OUDEMANS 1894) Lamprolepis smaragdina philippinica (MERTENS 1928) Lamprolepis smaragdina smaragdina (LESSON 1826) Lamprolepis smaragdina viridipuncta (LESSON 1830) Lamprolepis smaragdina moluccarum (BARBOUR 1911) Lamprolepis smaragdina perviridis BARBOUR 1921
- Described by
- Lesson
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1829
- Type locality
- Marshall Islands
Keeping one
19 in × 12 in × 19 in(49 × 30 × 49 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes climbing species at 4 × 2.5 × 4 times snout-vent length.
Lives in vegetation, so height and climbing structure matter more than floor space.
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 4.75 in (121.5 mm), at 4 × 2.5 × 4 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
Active animals measured in the wild averaged 87 °F (30.3 °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.
5kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 39 g, the heaviest recorded for Emerald 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
- — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
- — 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
- — Sex decided by
- — Red List criteria
- — Active season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest 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). Lamprolepis smaragdina. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/lamprolepis-smaragdina
@misc{lamprolepis_smaragdina_2026,
title = {Lamprolepis smaragdina},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/lamprolepis-smaragdina}
}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.