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Squamata · ScincidaeEntry 18,808 of 21,572
Forbe’s Forest Ground Skink, Scincella forbesorum

Reptilia · Squamata

Scincella forbesorumTaylor, 1937

Forbe’s Forest Ground Skink

Identification not confirmed. One observer recorded this animal as this species and no one has since agreed, so the photograph may show a different animal.

Photograph by Tenoch Cuauhtémoc Perez, CC BY, via iNaturalist

A skink from the Neotropic region, reaching 61 mm snout to vent.

Once published as Leiolopisma forbesorum, Scincella forbesora — those names reach this page.

ReptiliaSquamataScincidaeScincella

We do not have enough on this species yet

Catalogue of Life records this animal’s name, its family and where it sits in the tree of life. Beyond that, only 20 facts are on record — no diet, no lifespan, nothing we would be willing to publish as an entry.

So this page waits here rather than pretending to be one. It is not listed and not submitted to search engines. If you know this animal and can point us at a published source, we would rather have it right than have it soon.

Grows to
61mm
greatest recorded
Lives
Saxicolous, terrestrial
Weighs up to
4.51g
greatest
Body length across Scincidae

Longer than only 35% of all skinks anyone has measured.

35% of 1,710 species are smaller65% 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

20 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

The animal itself

Limbs
Four legs
Venomous
No
Fangs
None

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
61mm2.5 in

Shai Meiri, unpublished

Length snout to vent · adult female mean
50.4mm2 in
Largest female · snout to vent
50.4mm2 in

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

Body mass · greatestcomputed
4.51g0.16 oz

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

How it lives

Where it lives
Saxicolous, terrestrial

Leaf Litter and Saxicolous (see Sources (general) column)

Biome
Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
Region
Neotropic
Mainland or island
Mainland
Elevation · above sea level
1200–2100m

Naming and history

Suborder
Sauria
Infraorder
Scincoidea
Subspecies
No
Described by
Taylor
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
Yes
Described in
1937
Type locality
Mexico

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
  • Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
  • Diet
  • Eats arthropods
  • Eats vertebrates
  • Eats plant matter
  • How it hunts
  • Active
  • Reproduction
  • How the young develop
  • Gestation or incubation
  • Average clutch
  • 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
  • Conservation status
  • Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
  • Population trend
  • Red List criteria
  • Active season · shortest recorded
  • Active season · longest recorded
  • Density · lowest recorded
  • Density · highest recorded
  • Home range · largest recorded
  • Habitat
  • Active in
  • Range size

Others in Scincidae

Sources

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