Plestiodon multivirgatus
species of reptile
Plestiodon multivirgatus, commonly known as the many-lined skink, the northern many-lined skink, or the variable skink, is a medium-sized species of lizard, a member of the North American skink genus Plestiodon in the family Scincidae. The species is native to the western United States.
Taxonomy
The taxonomy of this species is somewhat unclear, even amongst researchers. Most commonly, two subspecies are recognized:
P. m. multivirgatus (Hallowell, 1857) – northern many-lined skink
P. m. epipleurotus (Cope, 1880) – variable skink
The latter is sometimes treated as a separate species Plestiodon epipleurotus or Plestiodon gaigeae (Taylor, 1935), or given as the subspecies P. m. gaigeae. These last two scientific names are in honor of American herpetologist Helen Beulah Thompson Gaige (1890–1976) of the University of Michigan.
P. m. epipleurotus is also called the two-lined skink.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Plestiodon multivirgatus” as species of reptile. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as species of reptile. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2928191. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1857, 1880, 1935 and 1890.
A general summary may omit uncertainty, sample limits or methodological disagreement that is explicit in the technical record. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Plestiodon multivirgatus” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.