Life History and Ecology of the Five-lined Skink, Eumeces fasciatus Part 10

No. 5: Four captures in two months, in 1950 on April 15, and on April 26 had moved 50 feet south; on May 23 she was approximately 50 feet from both second and third locations, and on June 5 was between second and third locations.

No. 6: Four captures in 23 months, all within a 20-foot stretch of ledge, in 1950 on June 5 and 17, in 1951 on August 22, and in 1952 on May 1.

No. 7: Four captures in one year, in 1951 on May 19, June 12, June 24, and in 1952 on May 21, all four locations within a 15-foot diameter.

No. 8: Four captures in 23 months, in 1950 on July 5 (as a subadult), in 1951 on August 6 and 15, and in 1952 on May 28, all within a radius of a few yards at the pond rock pile.

No. 9: Four captures in 13 months, on August 2 and 3, 1951, and May 28 and August 31, 1952. From the original location successive sites were 30 feet southwest, 20 feet south southwest, and 30 feet north.

YOUNG

No. 1: (male) Five captures in 33-1/2 months; marked as hatchling on July 13, 1949, and recaptured on June 1, 1950, 175 feet northwest down slope. Subsequent locations of this lizard, as an adult, were, in 1951, on August 21 and 24, and 1952 on May 1, 80 feet east, 80 feet east, and 70 feet northeast from the second location.

No. 2: (male) Five captures in a little more than one year, all within a radius of a few yards at the pond rock pile, in 1949 on August 23, and in 1950 on June 7, July 23, August 19, and September 3.

No. 4: (male) Four captures in 11 months all within a 30-foot stretch along the ledge, in 1950 on July 4, and in 1951 on May 6, 14, and 25.

No. 5: (male) Four captures in one year, in 1950 on September 4, and in 1951 on May 11, June 14, and August 21; the first and last locations were together separated from the second and third, also together, by about 20 feet.

No. 6: (male) Four captures in 13 months, in 1950 on April 19, June 5 and June 6, and in 1951 on May 14. All four locations were linearly distributed along the ledge, the second and third near together 30 feet north of the first and the fourth 30 feet south of the first.

No. 7: (s.e.x undetermined) Four captures in one month, on April 24, and May 2, 4, and 21, 1952, well scattered within a 70-foot diameter.

No. 8: (female) Eight captures in 25 months, in 1950 on June 5 and 9, and in 1951 on May 25, August 15, and September 28, and in 1952 on April 24 and 26. All were within a 150-foot diameter, the first three all within 40 feet, the fifth and sixth near together but 35 feet north northeast from the first group, the last three all within a 90-foot diameter and all to the north of the first five. At least one shift probably was involved.

No. 9: (female) Five captures in 28 months, in 1950 on April 21 and May 7, in 1951 on May 3, and in 1952 on May 2 and August 27. The first three captures were all at approximately the same location, from which the fourth was 60 feet north and the fifth was 130 feet east.

No. 10: (female) Five captures in 24 months; in 1950 on June 5 and 13, and July 29, in 1951 on August 21, and in 1952 on May 28. From the original location successive captures were 50 feet west, 35 feet west northwest, 40 feet west, and 50 feet west.

Less complete records of the movements of other individuals are included along with growth data, on pages 79 to 82 and 87 to 88.

Sizes of home ranges are affected by the type of habitat. For instance, the pond rock pile approximately 70 30 feet, must have const.i.tuted the entire home range for the many individuals living in it, since it was surrounded by areas that did not provide suitable habitat. No less than 212 five-lined skinks were taken in this small rock pile area in four seasons, and it is obvious that many of these were occupying it simultaneously since a substantial proportion of the total were caught there in more than one year. This rock pile provided in particularly concentrated form the essential habitat requirements, such as an abundant and varied arthropod food supply, an almost infinitely large number of hiding places beneath and between the rocks, basking sites, and flat rocks with damp soil beneath, suitable for nests. In open woods home ranges tend to be larger or, at least, more elongate. Scattered distribution of such habitat features as flat rocks and outcrops, stumps, logs, and glades with patches of sunlight, may induce an individual to extend its activities over a more extensive area. For some of the adult males for which largest numbers of records are available, showing repeated movements back and forth within a definite area which seemingly const.i.tuted a home range, movements of 275 feet, 225 feet, 170 feet, 165 feet, 150 feet and 130 feet, respectively, have been recorded.

For one young which grew to the size of a subadult during the period covered by the records, movements within a 150-foot diameter were recorded. These individuals all had home ranges substantially larger than the average. It seems that in the five-lined skink there is no fixed size or shape for a home range, but that it varies within rather wide limits depending on age, s.e.x, and perhaps individual peculiarities and on the presence and distribution of essential habitat features within the general area.

Most of the young that were recaptured had grown to subadult or adult size, so that the movements they made as young cannot be separated from those made when they were full grown or nearly so. For 40, however, recapture records are available while they were still less than 56 mm.

long. One of those was an exceptionally long movement of 215 feet, obviously involving a shift of range. For the other 39, the average movement was 34 feet, almost intermediate between the average movements of adult males and females. Observations on recently hatched young have given the impression that they keep to narrowly limited areas probably only a few yards in extent at first. For instance, at various times several members of a brood of young have been observed foraging simultaneously but independently on the same 10-foot log, within a few feet of each other. For periods of up to more than a week they had failed to disperse any farther than this from the nest, although probably never returning to the nest itself after having left. In subsequent weeks, however, the young are likely to shift their activities from the immediate vicinity of the nest site to more favorable nearby areas, and gradually extend their ranges. By the time they are one-fourth grown they are ranging over areas larger than those used by adult females.

Some of the shifts in range are probably forced upon individual skinks by changes in seasonal distribution of food, shelter and other requirements, causing them to abandon certain areas and invade others by gradual stages, without venturing far, at any time, into unfamiliar surroundings. Occasional individuals apparently get lost and undergo a period of wandering before they re-establish a home range. An individual venturing slightly beyond the border of its home range might lose its orientation and fail to return, especially if it left under conditions of stress, as when pursued by an enemy, or a rival of its own species.

Several individuals originally captured in the vicinity of the quarry or nearby ledges, were subsequently recaptured at the pond rock pile more than 200 yards away. In these instances it may be that the lizard wandered from its home range along the ledge, and finding itself in thick woods, with nearly continuous canopy permitting insufficient sunlight, and with few rocks for shelter, it continued down the slope to the lower edge of the woods, crossed a ditch, and a 100-foot stretch of gra.s.sland, and finally reached the exceptionally favorable habitat provided by the rock pile.

The extent to which memory persists through the season of dormancy is little known, but great change takes place in the habitat during the colder half of the year when the lizard's activity is suspended. Even if the area is one that is free from gross disturbance by man or large animals, the changes occurring are so great that the area might be scarcely recognizable from the lizard's viewpoint. Herbaceous vegetation mantling the soil, at the height of its development in late summer, will have died, dried out and the leaves and stalks will have been matted down by wind, rain, and snow, and incorporated in the surface layer of soil by the next spring. Shrubs and trees having shed their leaves, present contours quite different from those in autumn. Holes and crevices familiar as avenues of escape, will have been sealed, by the weather collecting and compacting surface debris. Less extensive changes are involved in the occasional blowing down of trees and dead snags, erosion of gullies, deposition of sediment and drift wood, and disintegration of logs. Many of the invertebrates which are the main food sources in late summer, are unavailable in early spring, being at different stages in the life cycle or annual cycle of abundance; and those kinds which make up the bulk of the spring diet likewise are often unavailable in fall. These changes in location of food supply, shelter, and other needs, and the seasonal change in microhabitat, breaking the established routine of conditioned responses to habitat features would seem to promote shifts in range after emergence from hibernation. The available records tend to bear out this supposition. Of the 15 skinks recorded as making long movements of more than 250 feet that almost certainly involved shift in range, only one was recaptured the same season; the other fourteen had pa.s.sed one or more hibernations.

In the course of the study approximately 30 individuals were released or accidentally escaped at places other than the locations where they were originally taken. Some of these were young hatched in the laboratory, some were of unknown origin, their locality tags having been lost before release while they were being handled in the laboratory, or escaped from defective cloth bags while they were awaiting processing or release, and some taken on remote parts of the Reservation or nearby land were deliberately released on one of the study areas with the idea that they would replace skinks of the same s.e.x and age, recently eliminated through an accident of trapping or handling. Ten were released in Skink Woods, ten at the pond rock pile, eight at the laboratory building, and two near Rat Ledge. In no instance was a transferred skink known to have found its way back to an original home range, although some might have done so with fairly short trips of only a few hundred feet, and the chances of recapturing them would have been good. Therefore it seems that homing instinct is either wholly lacking or but feebly developed.

The incidence of recaptures was low, only four for the entire group, suggesting a tendency to wander away from the area of release before settling down on a home range. One young found on May 11, 1950, in the laboratory where it probably had escaped, was released in Skink Woods, and was recaptured three times in the summer of 1951, in what seemed to be a home range within 80 feet of the point of release. Another young of unknown origin released in Skink Woods on May 18, 1950, was recaptured six days later 160 feet away. Five hatchlings from a clutch of eggs incubated and hatched in the laboratory, were released in Skink Woods on August 8, 1952. The following April two of them were recaptured, only 20 feet and 25 feet respectively, from the point of release. The movements and dispersal of this group from the point of release probably paralleled that of a typical brood dispersing from its nest after hatching under natural conditions. An adult male captured just off the Reservation was released at the pond rock pile on May 15, 1952, and was recaptured there on June 2 and June 4. In general, skinks transferred from their original location seem soon to settle down in a new range if the habitat is favorable, but establishment of a home range may or may not be preceded by an initial period of wandering.

Food Habits

McCauley (1939:151) examined contents of 25 alimentary tracts of _E.

fasciatus_ collected in Maryland as the basis for the most extensive account of the food habits yet published. One tract contained a broken _Eumeces_ tail, possibly that of the lizard that ate it, which had a recently broken stump tail. A half-grown skink contained numerous _Eumeces_ scales, and McCauley interpreted this as indicating that it had fed on another of its own species or of _E. laticeps_. As no other hard parts of the a.s.sumed victim were in evidence, these scales may have been the lizard's own slough. (In the present study it was found that eating of the slough was far more frequent than cannibalism.) Arthropod prey included: 11 orthopterans (4 undetermined, 3 unspecified gra.s.shoppers, 2 gryllids, 1 blattid, 1 acridid); 10 coleopterans (7 undetermined, 1 each of rhynchophoran, cerambycid, carabid, staphylinid larva, elaterid adult and larva); 8 spiders; 5 pulmonate snails; 5 flies; 3 undetermined; and one each of lepidopteran larva and adult, ant, dragonfly, thysanuran, and sow bug.

In Ohio, Conant (1940:31) noted food items consisting largely of gra.s.shopper nymphs and small beetles. He found that in captivity these skinks would eat mealworms, crickets, gra.s.shoppers, spiders, roaches, and newborn mice, and a few individuals would lap egg from a mixture of chopped meat and eggs. One large male killed and ate a small common swift (_Sceloporus undulatus_). Netting (1939:162) mentioned newborn mice, birds' eggs and small lizards as possible prey, although stating that this species is mainly insectivorous.

Taylor (1936:61) describing the feeding habits of lizards of this genus wrote: "The food consists of a very extensive variety of insects and insect larvae, Arachnida and occasionally small crustaceans. In a few specimens traces of plant material have been observed, but I regard this as being most probably of accidental introduction in the diet. Probably the most surprising fact about the diet of the forms examined is that ants are absent." In the present study of _E. fasciatus_, the trends in general bore out Taylor's findings concerning absence of ants from the diet, although three ants were found among more than 600 other food items. These three, one of them a larva, were of the two largest species among the many kinds of ants found in the area of the study. Most of these local kinds of ants are below the minimum size of prey ordinarily taken by the skinks. Colonies of small ants, _Aphenogaster_ sp., for instance, are abundant in the soil beneath flat rocks in the same situations where the skinks are found, and const.i.tute most of the food of the small toads, _Microhyla olivacea_, which were abundant in the same habitat and microhabitat as the skinks, especially in the Skink Woods study area (Freiburg, 1951:383).

Burt (1928:56) without citing specific records, stated that "The food of _E. fasciatus_ consists largely of insects and spiders," but in another paper (1928:62) he listed contents of two stomachs, including a wood roach (_Parcoblatta_), a cricket (_Gryllus pennsylvanicus_), a gra.s.shopper, and 2 spiders (attid and lycosid). Smith, summarizing the findings of other authors (1946:350), stated that "The food consists of various small insects, insect larvae, earthworms, spiders, etc. Small vertebrates such as young lizards and mice are sometimes eaten." In a later work Smith (1950:188) altered this statement slightly: "The food consists of almost any small moving animal, including many kinds of arthropods and even small vertebrates."

Many authors have mentioned predation on mammals by these skinks, but without citing specific instances, which must be rare indeed, for the smallest newborn mice seem to be near the maximum size of objects that could possibly be swallowed by the largest adults of the common five-lined skink. Various early records and statements pertaining to predation on small vertebrates by five-lined skinks probably pertain in most cases to _E. laticeps_, which is much larger than _E. fasciatus_, and more powerful.

Barbour (1950:102) recorded stomach contents of an _E. fasciatus_ collected in Harlan County, Kentucky, as consisting of 60 per cent Arachnida, 30 per cent adult Lepidoptera, and 10 per cent ants, by volume. Werler and McCallion (1951:250) mentioned that on two occasions these skinks in Virginia were seen to eat tenebrionid beetles and larvae.

Webb (1949:294) fed captive skinks with field crickets (_Gryllus_) and noted that the lizards tended to seize them by the p.r.o.notum, and then worked forward to the head, chewing vigorously to disable them. The seized crickets attempted to defend themselves by striking the lizards'

faces and eyes with the cerci and tibial spines. Webb also offered his skinks newly hatched snails, _Helix aspersa_, which were noticed and fed upon when they moved. In one instance, he noted that a skink found a quiescent snail, and swallowed it after testing it with the tongue a few times.

McIlhenny (1937:232) has published a remarkable account of observations on the foraging behavior of a large adult male skink (stated to be _E.

fasciatus_ but almost certainly _E. laticeps_) in southern Louisiana, which climbed among vines on the side of a house and attacked nests of wasps, _Polistes pallipes_ and _P. bellicosus_, shaking out the larvae, pausing to crush and swallow the few adults that lit on it and attempted, unsuccessfully, to sting. After many larvae had been shaken to the ground the skink descended and made a leisurely search, eating them in seemingly prodigious quant.i.ties. Several times it climbed back into the vines to shake out more larvae, and each time retrieved from the ground those it could find. After feeding to repletion it returned to its habitual shelter in a hollow live oak fifty feet from the house.

In a two-week period, however, it returned frequently to raid the wasp nests in the vines, and eventually it had attacked all of the 32 nests that were originally present, completely destroying many of them.

In the course of the present study direct observations on the food habits of skinks rarely could be made in the field. Most of those seen had been alarmed by the presence of the observer, and already had begun a dash for shelter. Others not sufficiently alarmed to take cover, were affected by an observer's presence, so that usually they ceased their normal activities and crouched attempting to conceal themselves or slithered nervously from one vantage point to another, on the alert for any sign of danger.

On September 1, 1951, a young skink (30-35 mm. snout-vent length) was discovered on the cement walk just outside the laboratory building, holding a cricket (_Nemobius_) which evidently it had just caught. When I came out of the building, the skink, alarmed, ran about ten feet, holding the cricket by one leg. The cricket was still alive but was nearly immobilized, except for twitching of its antennae and mandibles, and evidently it had already been shaken and battered. After maneuvering about the cement walk the skink ran through the open door into the building. Though seeming to be uneasy at my proximity it was still mainly intent on subduing and swallowing its prey. Following, I caused the skink to take alarm. It dashed back through the door to the walk outside and still carrying the cricket, it ran along the walk to the steps leading up to another building and climbed onto the first step where its uneasiness soon subsided. The cricket was remarkably large in proportion to the skink itself, being of approximately the same diameter, with a length nearly half that of the skink's snout-vent length. Nevertheless, in about five minutes the skink had swallowed it entire. As swallowing began, on the cement step, the skink was in bright sunshine of early afternoon. In less than a minute it seemed to become overheated, and dragged the prey back several inches into shadow. While swallowing was still in progress, it again ran forward till its anterior half was in sunshine, seemingly regulating its body temperature by these frequent shifts.

A similar encounter between a larger juvenile and a cricket (_Ceuthophilus_) was observed on May 9, 1953. After I had stood for several minutes beside a rock ledge in woods, my attention was attracted by a rustling sound in dry leaves. The skink, emerging onto the ledge from a cavity beneath exposed hackberry roots had its head raised high and was darting about, peering into crevices and examining its surroundings with unusual animation. After several seconds the cricket hopped into view. Possibly it had been injured already, as it moved deliberately, with short hops. Instantly the skink darted in pursuit, following its erratic course persistently, as it made several hops. In a few seconds the skink caught the cricket, bit it vigorously, and battered it against the rock ledge with violent lateral shaking. Several times the cricket was knocked from the skink's jaws, but each time it was quickly retrieved. In a few seconds its struggles were subdued, but the skink continued to worry it, dropping it and retrieving it dozens of times. The skink seized the cricket by one of the large rear legs, which was snapped off with a sudden vigorous shake. The skink then dropped and lost the detached leg, and ran back to seize the cricket again. The performance was repeated with several other legs and the antennae, until most of the appendages were eliminated and the body was softened by continued biting and chewing. Then although the cricket was of body diameter almost as great as the skink itself, the lizard swallowed it head first, engulfing it with violent gulping movements. After the front end of the prey had entered the gullet, muscles of the throat and neck were brought into play in forcing it farther down. Swallowing movements were snake-like, the lizard turning its head at right angles to the body to squeeze the morsel down.

At the pond rock pile on May 7, 1952, a small adult male was watched as it moved about over the rocks. A lycosid spider (_Pardosa lapidicina_) carrying an egg sac was basking on an inclined rock surface. When the skink had come within a few inches, it made a sudden rush at the spider which escaped easily. As this common rock-living spider can move with almost incredible speed, skinks probably do not often catch them in the open.

Captive skinks, in taking their food, seem to rely much less than some other lizards on movement of the prey as a means of detecting it. An active and hungry skink often failed to notice a spider or insect moving about on the opposite side of the terrarium a foot or more away.

However, on many occasions, skinks moving about the terrarium and coming upon a motionless prey item have been seen to stop and examine it intently for several seconds, then grasp it, often in a tentative and hesitant manner, after testing it with the tongue. Sight and scent seem to be about equally important in prey recognition, each supplementing the other, and often functioning simultaneously. As many of the animals preyed upon are secretive and would seldom be found in the open by day, it seems that much of the prey is found in hiding places--in leaf litter on the forest floor, beneath flat rocks or at their edges, and in c.h.i.n.ks and crannies of decaying logs, stumps, and tree trunks. Some of the prey animals taken are of types that are more active and swift than the skinks themselves. Presumably the olfactory sense is the more important in detecting prey that is motionless or concealed. Stebbins (1948:202) studied the nasal structure of _Eumeces_, and compared it with that of other lizards. He concluded that the extensive mucus-secreting and olfactory surfaces suggest relatively efficient humidification of inspired air and efficient olfaction in lizards of this genus. In captivity five-lined skinks thrived when provided with ample moisture and shelter and food and kept within the proper temperature range. The reactions of these captive skinks to various small animals introduced into their terraria provided clues as to their food preferences, but also were misleading in some instances. On many occasions hatchlings and young of various sizes were kept with adults of both s.e.xes and subadults, but no instances of cannibalism were ever recorded in captivity. No hostility was seen except between adults, mainly in the breeding season. Young of the little brown skink, _Scincella laterale_, kept with adult _E. fasciatus_, and small enough to be eaten by them, likewise were unmolested. Small snakes such as _Diadophis_, _Carphophis_, and _Storeria_ placed in terraria with the skinks evoked no strong reaction. Occasionally mild avoidance reactions were aroused but the skinks were never seen to display any hostility and readily became accustomed to such cage mates. Mealworms, the most readily available food for the captive skinks, were generally accepted by those that were hungry and sufficiently warm, but were taken with little enthusiasm. They were seldom noticed unless the skinks were within a few inches. Skinks sometimes tested them with their tongues and examined them intently then moved away without eating them. Earthworms, offered on several occasions, were not eaten. Harvestmen, seemingly of the same kind as those found in scats, were ignored by some captive individuals and taken by others but with some signs of distaste. Ants were ignored.

Scarabaeid beetles, that seemed small enough to be eaten, were attacked unsuccessfully, as they were too heavily armored to be crushed in the skinks' jaws. Wasps (_Polistes_) placed in terraria were avoided, as were carabid beetles and reduviid bugs. A spider placed in the terrarium usually aroused one or more skinks to animated pursuit, as soon as it moved. Even spiders that seemed to be too large to be swallowed were sometimes pursued and attacked. Occasionally freshly killed prey was taken, especially spiders and wasp larvae. Of invertebrates minute forms are not taken, while certain ants, and various others of the kinds of insects most common on the study areas and often found rather closely a.s.sociated with the skinks and using the same shelters, were never represented among the recorded food items. Carabid beetles (_Brachinus_, _Calosoma_, _Lebia_, _Harpalus_, _Pasimachus_), and reduviid bugs (_Melanolestes_, etc.) seemed to be especially abundant and available, but habitually avoided possibly because of their noxious qualities.

Diptera were entirely absent from the sample in the present study--they and many other insects are so much quicker than the skinks that ordinarily these insects cannot be caught. Foliage-living insects and those that are strong and persistent fliers, are rarely available as prey.

A total of 738 food items were recorded in the present study. Arachnids with 360 items, and insects with 319, together made up 92 percent of these food items. There were 334 spiders (most were not definitely identified, but four were thomisids, 40 were lycosids, and 79 were salticids, the latter group including 27 of the genus _Phidippus_); 26 harvestmen (_Leiobunum vittatum_ and others); 149 orthopterans (51 ceuthophilid crickets, 31 gryllid crickets, 27 tettigoniid locusts; 17 unspecified, 14 roaches, 9 locustid gra.s.shoppers); 80 indeterminate insects; 39 beetles (mostly carabids and scarabaeids within a narrow size range); 19 larvae (13 lepidopteran, 2 coleopteran, 1 ant, 3 indeterminate); 2 ants (_Camponotus herculaneus_ and _C. castaneus_); 2 wasps; 1 moth; 1 centipede; 59 snails (31 indeterminate, 18 _Gastrocopta armifera_, 8 _Retinella electrina_, 1 _Strobilops labyrynthica_, 1 _Hawaia minuscula_); 23 sloughed skins of the skinks themselves; 2 skink eggs; and 2 skink hatchlings.

This sample is based on combined sets of data from a.n.a.lysis of stomach contents and of "scats." The two sets of data present somewhat divergent trends, and perhaps neither is adequately representative of the food habits in the geographic area represented. A total of 620 food items found in scats represented an average of 1.67 items per scat, whereas in 80 stomachs containing food the average was 1.44 items per stomach. Of the skinks killed and dissected more than half had empty stomachs. Many of them were, however, found inactive in shelter so that it was obvious that they had not foraged recently. Many were not killed immediately and they may have had time to digest any food in their stomachs.

Determinations of the prey down to species were possible in relatively few instances; usually only the family or the order could be determined.

Those who have attempted food habits studies of insectivorous small vertebrates will appreciate the obstacles encountered. The invertebrates available to the skinks in the area of the study included many thousands of species. A large number of these species, perhaps the majority, belong to groups still not thoroughly studied, so that their taxonomy is in a state of confusion. Ordinarily the prey is crushed in the jaws and battered on the ground before ingestion; diagnostic structures are often broken or lost, making identification far more difficult. Prey animals taken are often in immature or larval stages which lack the distinguishing features presented by adults. Even the combined efforts of a team of specialists on each of the prey groups involved probably would not have sufficed to obtain generic and specific identification of every item found. In the present study, however, all determinations were made by the writer, with the aid of the small reference collection at the University of Kansas Natural History Reservation.

The 80 specimens used for stomach contents a.n.a.lysis nearly all came from localities off the Reservation, but all within a ten-mile radius thereof. A dozen localities were represented by these specimens, and within each locality specimens were taken in somewhat different situations. Therefore the stomach contents a.n.a.lyzed represents a wide range of ecological conditions, including many different microhabitats.

All the stomach contents were collected in late April, May, and June--within the first half of the skinks' active season. Trends might be expected to differ in late summer and fall.

The food items from stomachs included: 38 spiders (8 of the salticid genus _Phidippus_, 5 lycosids, 4 thomisids, and the remainder unspecified); 15 insect larvae (7 of them lepidopteran and one tentatively identified as an ant, _Camponotus castaneus_, the rest unspecified); 13 unspecified insects; 10 crickets; 9 roaches; 9 snails (5 of them _Gastrocopta armifera_); 7 beetles; 4 sloughs of skinks; 3 gra.s.shoppers; 2 grouse locusts; and one each of cave cricket (_Ceuthophilus?_), ant (_Camponotus castaneus_), moth, centipede, sow bug, and egg of a skink. The egg was probably laid by the female that ate it, since she was found brooding an unusually small clutch of only three eggs.

The condition of food items found in stomachs varied greatly. Some were nearly intact, while others were fragmentary and represented by only a few of the more durable and indigestible parts. The larvae of various insects found in stomachs examined are especially noteworthy, since but little comparable material was found in the much larger group of items identified from scats.