Steep, rocky areas, with patchy tree and shrub cover, rotten logs and leaf litter, that are usually adjacent to moist deciduous forests. Five-lined skinks are smooth, shiny lizards with rows of tiny scales around the center of their body. The coloration is highly variable, depending on the age and sex of the skink.
Young skinks have five white or yellowish stripes on a blackish body and a bright blue tail.
Adult males usually show traces of stripes, but tend to become nearly uniform brown or olive in coloration. Orange-red appears on the head and jaws of the males during the spring breeding season. The range of the five-lined skink corresponds closely with the eastern deciduous forest. Disjunct populations exist in northeastern Iowa, western Wisconsin, and Minnesota. This species is at its northeastern range limit in southwestern New England.