North GroundHuntNorth Ground Hunt — return to North Ground
Species authority page

Broadhead skink

Plestiodon laticeps · Lizards · Reptiles

Broadhead skink (Plestiodon laticeps): Second-largest skink in the account, up to 324 mm; males become uniform brown and lose their stripes. Breeding-season males have a greatly enlarged orange to red head. This profile does not establish whether taking it is legal anywhere.

Check rules for a place and date

Certified rules currently represented in Hunt: coverage in development. This is coverage, not a legal answer.

Broadhead skink with an orange head resting on a weathered log
Adobe Stock · Standard License (asset 2039168300)
Scientific name
Plestiodon laticeps
Family
Scincidae
In North America
Native
Range
Central and eastern United States, from Pennsylvania to Florida and Indiana to Texas. Not in Canada.
Biology

How to identify it

Second-largest skink in the account, up to 324 mm; males become uniform brown and lose their stripes. [1][2]

Breeding-season males have a greatly enlarged orange to red head. [1][2]

Juveniles brown to black with five to seven white to light-orange stripes and a bright blue tail; adult females keep some striping but lose the blue tail. [1][2]

Five labial scales around the mouth (five-lined skinks have four). [1][2]

Compared with the common five-lined skink: Five-lined skink has four labial scales around the mouth; broadhead skink has five. [1][2]

Species it is confused with

Check these before deciding what you are looking at. If you are not certain what it is, do not shoot.

Field notes

  • Identification Confirm a broadhead skink before you act. Compared with the common five-lined skink: Five-lined skink has four labial scales around the mouth; broadhead skink has five.[1][2]
Field knowledge

Where it lives

Open forests and woodland edges, hammocks and cypress heads in Florida, swamps and barrier islands; uses tree hollows and old woodpecker holes, and large live oaks on coastal islands. [1][2]

Field knowledge

How it behaves

Diurnal and solitary; mainly arboreal but often hunts and nests on the ground; sun themselves on snags and stumps. [1][2]

Eats insects, arachnids, mollusks, isopods, rodents and smaller reptiles including juveniles of its own species, hunting by sight and tongue-flicking. [1][2]

Hibernates October-March in northern parts of range; males are territorial in the breeding season; females guard eggs in rotting stumps or dead trees. [1][2]

Regulatory handoff

Limited legal take

Legal take of this species exists only under narrow conditions — a quota, a draw, a permit, a small area, or animals released or held on private land — set by the authorities below. Nowhere else is a legal opportunity implied, and Hunt shows one only where a certified rule establishes it.

Where legal take is listed

Being listed is not an open season. Seasons, zones, licences, methods and limits decide whether this animal may be taken on a given day and place — check Hunt or the authority before you go. Listings read 2026-09-30.

Geospatial intelligence

Where it is found

Central and eastern United States, from Pennsylvania to Florida and Indiana to Texas. Not in Canada.

Biology

Sources

Every claim above is attributed to one of these published sources.

  1. NatureServe · reviewed 2026-09-30

    NatureServe

  2. University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, Animal Diversity Web · reviewed 2026-09-30

    University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, Animal Diversity Web