Common or garden

The fierce-looking fellow shown at left is in fact only about 90mm long and harmless. It’s what must be one of our most abundant and visible small veterbrate animals, the Garden Skink (Lampropholis guichenoti).
They are lovely reptiles to watch as they dart around amongst leaf litter after small invertebrate prey or bask in the sun on rocks.
 
 
They are oviparous, with females laying 4 – 6 eggs in spring, often in a communal nest. In a good season they can lay two clutches and can apparently even store sperm from a late-summer mating to fertilise their eggs in the following spring.
 
 
 
Another similar skink common in Victoria and often also referred to as a garden skink is the Delicate Skink (Lampropholis delicata) which is of a comparable size but is more of a bronze colour on the back and generally lacks the darker markings of the Garden Skink. Our resident small skinks, shown in the photos here, all seem to be of the (common or) Garden variety.