Reptilia · Squamata
Trachylepis maculilabrisGray, 1845
Speckle-lipped Mabuya (or 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 116916927065934112165, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A day-active, meat-eating skink from the Afrotropic region, reaching 98 mm snout to vent.
Also called Casuarina Island Skink.
Once published as Mabuya casuarinae, Mabuya maculilabris — those names reach this page.
Reptilia › Squamata › Scincidae › Trachylepis
- Grows to
- 98mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 2.5years
Longer than 76% 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
43 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
- 2014
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Longest recorded life
- 2.5years
- Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured
- 35.5°C
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 36.5°C98 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 36.5°C
9.2 months on average in the field, "it is not rare to keep a M. maculilabris in captivity for more than two years" (Barbault 1976, p487), so I write 2.5
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 98mm3.75 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 72.2mm2.75 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 72.2mm2.75 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 24mm0.9 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 24mm0.9 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 19.96g0.7 oz
max 98 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
- How it hunts
- Active foraging
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Arboreal, terrestrial
- Habitat
- Forest, Grassland, Savanna
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas & Shrublands
- Active season · months of the year
- 12months
- Region
- Afrotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 2550m
- Range size
- 6,788,123km²
- Density
- 5–445.2per hectare
Invertebrates, 0.2% lizards, Barbault 1974 p399 see also Haagner et al. 2000, arthropods, snails, a gecko ( Spawls et al. 2018), arthropods and snails (Pietersen et al. 2021)
Mesquita et al. 2016
Diurnal, heliothermic (Barbault 1976), Dirunal (Spawls et al. 2018, Spawls et al. 2023)
Arboreal (e.g., Branch 2005, Largen and Spawls 2006, Barbault 1976, Broadley 1974, Branch 2014, Spawls et al. 2018, Malonza and Bwong 2023, Spawls et al. 2023)/ Leaf Litter (Dunger 1972, Vonesh 1998, )/terrestrial (Akani et al. 2002, Dunham et al. 1988, Mesquita et al. 2016), terrestrial (Foster et al. 2018), predominantly arboreal (Pietersen et al. 2021)
0-2550 (Ineich et al. 2015), 0->2550 (Portik et al. 2016), 0-2300 (Spawls et al. 2018, Malonza and Bwong 2023), sea level to about 2000 (Spawls et al. 2023)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 7.04eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 3–13eggs
- Mean clutch
- 5.5–8.6eggs
- Clutches in a year
- 5per year
- Clutches a year
- 4–6per year
- First breeds at
- 5.5–6months
5-12 ova, mean 8.6 (Haagner et al. 2000), 5.47, 3-8 (Barbault 1974), mean 5.5 (Mesquita et al. 2016), 6-8 (Branch 2014, Spawls et al. 2018), 6-11 (Pietersen et al. 2021), 3-8 (Spawls et al. 2023)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Scincoidea
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Gray
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1845
- Type locality
- West Africa.
Keeping one
15.5 in × 15.5 in × 15.5 in(39 × 39 × 39 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes ground species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 and climbing species at 4 × 2.5 × 4 times snout-vent length.
Recorded both on the ground and climbing, so this is the larger of the two rules in every dimension.
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 3.75 in (98 mm), at 4 × 4 × 4 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
In a laboratory thermal gradient this species settled at 96 °F (35.5 °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 20 g, the heaviest recorded for Speckle-lipped Mabuya (or 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
- — 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
- — 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). Trachylepis maculilabris. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/trachylepis-maculilabris
@misc{trachylepis_maculilabris_2026,
title = {Trachylepis maculilabris},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/trachylepis-maculilabris}
}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.