Deignan Tree Skink

Deignan's tree skink is endemic to Sri Lanka and confined to midhill, submontane and montane forest at 600 to 1,700 m. It is named for the ornithologist Herbert Girton Deignan, who collected the first specimen on Gannoruwa Mountain in 1944. It is a rather large, robust Lanka skink with 28 midbody scale rows. The back is olive brown with a thick dark lateral stripe edged above by a brownish-yellow stripe and below by three or four grey stripes from the eye to the tail tip. The belly is cream white or pale pink, with black spots on the upper jaw (Wikipedia, general species account).

It lives in moist leaf litter and under stones and logs in forest and eats insects. It is oviparous, typically laying two eggs at a time. Nationally Endangered (Sri Lanka National Red List 2012).