Robust skink  (Oligosoma alani)

A relatively large New Zealand skink, the robust skink has, as its names suggests, a rather thickset body with a short, blunt head (2). The back is brown and patterned with irregular large, pale blotches with dark edges. The sides of the body are yellowish-grey with dark markings above the forelimbs, and the underside is yellowish (4). Beneath each conspicuously large eye sits a yellow tear-drop shaped marking, edged with black (2) (4). The limbs and toes of the robust skink are short and stumpy and the tail is thick at the base, but tapers abruptly (4). Previously classified within the genus Cyclodina, recent molecular evidence suggests that the robust skink, together with all native New Zealand skinks, should be placed within a single genus, Oligosoma (1).