Reptilia · Squamata
Lissolepis luctuosaPeters, 1866
Western Mourning Skink
Photograph by Lachlan Copeland, CC BY-SA, via iNaturalist
A day-active, meat-eating skink from the Australo-Pacific region, reaching 130 mm snout to vent.
Also called Western Glossy Swamp Skink.
Once published as Egernia luctuosa — those names reach this page.
Reptilia › Squamata › Scincidae › Lissolepis
- Grows to
- 130mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 18.2years
Longer than 90% 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
29 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
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Longest recorded life
- 18.2years
Slavens and Slavens 1999: 18.2, Brown 2012: 18
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 130mm5 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 59mm2.25 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 59mm2.25 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 48.47g1.7 oz
max 130 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Semi-aquatic
- Habitat
- Shrubland, Wetlands
- Biome
- Mediterranean
- Region
- Australo-Pacific
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 312–655m
- Range size
- 42,083km²
invertebrates (Bush et al. 2010)
Cathemeral (Wilson and Swan 2008)/ Diurnal (Brendan Schembri, pers. comm. To Jules Farquhar April 2020), Diurnal basking in sheltered sites (Steve Wilson, pers. comm. To Jules Farquhar April 2020), Glenn Shea, pers. comm. (April 2020): "Diurnal. I've checked with Steve Wilson, and the statement in his book that the species was partly nocturnal was not based on direct observation, but assumption. He's only ever seen the species active by day, as has another experienced WA field herpetologist, Magnus Peterson. A similar situation occurs in the closely related species Lissolepis coventryi, where the early statements were that the species was partly nocturnal, but now that direct studies have been done, it's purely diurnal. Steve Wilson is changing the statement to diurnal in the next edition of his book (currently being prepared)."
Terrestrial / semi aquatic (Bush et al. 2010)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Viviparous
- Average clutch
- 2.6eggs
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Scincoidea
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Peters
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1866
- Type locality
- Australia
Keeping one
20.5 in × 20.5 in × 13 in(52 × 52 × 33 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 in (130 mm), at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Western Mourning Skink. Rather than repeat a number from a care sheet, this page leaves it out.
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.
6kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 48 g, the heaviest recorded for Western Mourning 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 female mean
- — 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 female · snout to vent
- — 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
- — Body mass at hatching
- — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
- — Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How it hunts
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — Smallest clutch recorded
- — Largest clutch recorded
- — Mean clutch · smallest reported
- — Mean clutch · largest reported
- — 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
- — Body temp in the wild · lowest mean recorded
- — Body temp in the wild · highest mean recorded
- — Colour on the back
- — Pattern on the back
- — Pupil
- — Sex decided by
- — Population trend
- — 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). Lissolepis luctuosa. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/lissolepis-luctuosa
@misc{lissolepis_luctuosa_2026,
title = {Lissolepis luctuosa},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/lissolepis-luctuosa}
}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.