page_title: Noronha skink
section_title: Relationships with other species
hierarchical_section_title: Noronha skink / Ecology and behavior / Relationships with other species
caption_attribution_description: Erythrina velutina Rare tree in Brisbane. I found it in Toowong park near Mt. Coot-tha. Erythrinas known as "coral tree", and more often they have red flowers. This one has orange flowers. Native to South America, where it is called Mulungu.
context_page_description: The Noronha skink is a species of skink from the island of Fernando de Noronha off northeastern Brazil. It is covered with dark and light spots on the upperparts and is usually about 7 to 10 cm in length. The tail is long and muscular, but breaks off easily. Very common throughout Fernando de Noronha, it is an opportunistic feeder, eating both insects and plant material, including nectar from the Erythrina velutina tree, as well as other material ranging from cookie crumbs to eggs of its own species. Introduced predators such as feral cats prey on it and several parasitic worms infect it.
  Perhaps seen by Amerigo Vespucci in 1503, it was first formally described in 1839. Its subsequent taxonomic history has been complex, riddled with confusion with Trachylepis maculata and other species, homonyms, and other problems. The species is classified in the otherwise mostly African genus Trachylepis and is thought to have reached its island from Africa by rafting. The enigmatic Trachylepis tschudii, supposedly from Peru, may well be the same species.
context_section_description: The Noronha skink probably lacked predators before Fernando de Noronha was discovered by humans, but several species that arrived since do prey on it, most commonly the cat (Felis catus) and cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis). These may negatively affect skink abundance at some localities on the island. The Argentine black and white tegu lizard, Tupinambis merianae, and three introduced rodents, the house mouse (Mus musculus), brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) and black rat (Rattus rattus), have also been observed to eat Noronha skinks, but the rodents, particularly the house mouse, may have been scavenging on already dead skinks.
  According to a 2006 study, the Noronha skink is infected by several parasitic worms, most frequently by the nematode Spinicauda spinicauda. Another nematode, Moaciria alvarengai, is much rarer. Other rare parasites include two trematodes—Mesocoelium monas and an undetermined species of Platynossomum—and an undetermined species of Oochoristica, a cestode. S. spinicauda is usually only found in teiid lizards; it may have entered the archipelago when Tupinambis merianae, a teiid, was introduced to the island in 1960. Among nematodes, previous studies in 1956 and 1957 had only reported M. alvarengai and Thelandros alvarengai from the skink; the presence of S. spinicauda could explain the rarity of M. alvarengai and absence of T. alvarengai in Noronha skinks observed in 2006.
caption: The Noronha skink feeds on nectar from the tree Erythrina velutina.[57]
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