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Squamata · ScincidaeEntry 18,802 of 21,572
Brown Forest Skink, Scincella cherriei

Reptilia · Squamata

Scincella cherrieiCope, 1893

Brown Forest Skink

Photograph by greatest_auk, CC BY, via iNaturalist

A ground-dwelling, day-active, meat-eating skink from the Neotropic region, reaching 68 mm snout to vent.

Also called Ixbaac Brown Forest Skink, Stuart’s Brown Forest Skink.

Once published as Leiolopisma cherriei, Sphenomorphus cherriei — those names reach this page.

Reptilia › Squamata › Scincidae › Scincella

Grows to
68mm
greatest recorded
Eats
Carnivorous
Active
Diurnal
Lives
Terrestrial
Body length across Scincidae

Longer than only 45% of all skinks anyone has measured.

45% of 1,710 species are smaller55% 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

39 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
2012
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
26–28°C79–82 °F

body temperature of active animals in nature

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
68mm2.75 in

max 68 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)

Length snout to vent · adult female mean
52.9mm2 in
Largest female · snout to vent
52.9mm2 in

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

Hatchling length · snout to vent
20.5mm0.8 in
Largest juvenile · snout to vent
20.5mm0.8 in
Body mass · greatestcomputed
6.34g0.22 oz

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

How it lives

Diet
Carnivorous

Invertebrates, also hatchlings (Fitch 1983 see also McCranie 2018, Leenders 2019)

How it hunts
Active foraging

e.g., Mesquita et al. 2016, Leenders 2019

Active
Diurnal

(e.g., McCranie 2018), twilight (Valdenegro-Brito et al. 2020)

Where it lives
Terrestrial

Leaf Litter, terrestrial (e.g., Mesquita et al. 2016, McCranie 2018, Valdenegro-Brito et al. 2020), arboreal (Foster et al. 2018)

Habitat
Forest
Biome
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Active season · months of the year
12months
Region
Neotropic
Mainland or island
Mainland
Highest it lives · above sea level
1860m

0-1960 (McCranie 2018: check, I wrote 1860 in the value box), near sea level - 1300 (Leenders 2019, also Zeas and Alvarado 2015)

Range size
482,021km²
Density
1–104per hectare

Breeding

Reproduction
Oviparous
Average clutch
2.5eggs
Eggs or young per clutch
1–5eggs

means 2-3 (Mesquita et al. 2016), 1-5 (McCranie 2018), 1-3 (Leenders 2019)

Mean clutch
2–3eggs
First breeds at
7–12months

Naming and history

Suborder
Sauria
Infraorder
Scincoidea
Subspecies
Scincella cherriei cherriei (COPE 1893) Scincella cherriei ixbaac (STUART 1940) Scincella cherriei stuarti (SMITH 1941)
Described by
Cope
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
Yes
Described in
1893
Type locality
Costa Rica

Keeping one

10.5 in × 10.5 in × 6.75 in(27 × 27 × 17 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 2.75 in (68 mm), at 4 × 4 × 2.5 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.

1kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 6 g, the heaviest recorded for Brown Forest 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
  • — Body mass at hatching
  • — Longest recorded life
  • — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
  • — Eats arthropods
  • — Eats vertebrates
  • — Eats plant matter
  • — How the young develop
  • — Gestation or incubation
  • — Clutches in a year
  • — Clutches a year · fewest
  • — Clutches a year · most
  • — 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
  • — 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). Scincella cherriei. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/scincella-cherriei

@misc{scincella_cherriei_2026,
  title  = {Scincella cherriei},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/scincella-cherriei}
}

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.