Reptilia · Squamata
Sphenomorphus indicusGray, 1853
Indian Forest Skink
Photograph by Ludovic Trochadero, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A ground-dwelling, day-active, meat-eating skink from the Oriental region, reaching 105 mm snout to vent.
Also called Himalayan Forest Skink.
Once published as Lygosoma indicum, Lygosoma zebratum, Sphenomorphus formosensis — those names reach this page.
Reptilia › Squamata › Scincidae › Sphenomorphus
- Grows to
- 104.7mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 6years
Longer than 80% 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
40 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
- 6years
- Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured
- 25.7°C
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 28.8°C
Slavens and Slavens 1999
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 104.7mm4 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 78.8mm3 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 78.8mm3 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 26.5mm1 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 26.5mm1 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 24.57g0.87 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 0.33g0.01 oz
max 104.7 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
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Terrestrial
- Habitat
- Forest, Grassland
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
- Region
- Oriental
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 160–2360m
- Range size
- 5,513,712km²
Arthropods and earthworms (Karsen et al. 1986, Norval et al. 2012), insects (IUCN Bangladesh 2015, Das and Das 2017)
e.g., Stotz et al. 2003, Vassilieva et al. 2016, Agarwal et al. 2010, IUCN Bangladesh 2015, Das and Das 2017, Zug and Mulachy 2019, Deuti et al. 2020, Jenssen and Sy 2022
Terrestrial and Leaf Litter, climbs rocks, logs and tree trunks (Grismer 2011), Terrestrial (e.g., Vassilieva et al. 2016, Zug and Mulachy 2019, Jenssen and Sy 2022), leaf litter (Yuan et al. 2016, IUCN Bangladesh 2015), semi-fossorial (Das and Das 2017), terrestrial (Foster et al. 2018, Deuti et al. 2020)
640-2360 (Stotz et al. 2003), max 1350 (Vassilieva et al. 2016), 1340-1680 (Kastle et al. 2013), 163 is a coinservative minimum in Yuan et al. 2016, 1000-2000 (Deuti et al. 2020), to 1250 (Jenssen and Sy 2022)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Viviparous
- Sex decided by
- Temperature
- Average clutch
- 7.27eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 1–11eggs
- Mean clutch
- 7.3eggs
- Clutches in a year
- 1per year
- Clutches a year
- 1per year
oviparous (e.g., Tikader and Sharma, Deuti et al. 2020) / Viviparous (e.g., Ji et al. 2006, Shine 1985, Das 2002, Das 2010, Cox et al. 2010, Schleich and Kastle 2002, Pyron and Burbrink 2013, Kastle et al. 2013, Yuan et al. 2016) / ovoviviparous (Ahmed 2009, Vassilieva et al. 2016, IUCN Bangladesh 2015, Das and Das 2017)
4-11 (Huang 2010, Vassilieva et al. 2016, IUCN Bangladesh 2015, Das and Das 2017), 6-9 (Kastle et al. 2013), 4-11 eggs (Deuti et al. 2020), Liang et al. 2021 (9)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Scincoidea
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Gray
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1853
- Type locality
- India
Keeping one
16.5 in × 16.5 in × 10.5 in(42 × 42 × 26 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 4 in (104.7 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 78 °F (25.7 °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.
3kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 25 g, the heaviest recorded for Indian 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 temperature when active · measured in the wild
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How it hunts
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — 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
- — Colour on the back
- — Pattern on the back
- — Pupil
- — 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). Sphenomorphus indicus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/sphenomorphus-indicus
@misc{sphenomorphus_indicus_2026,
title = {Sphenomorphus indicus},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/sphenomorphus-indicus}
}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.