The Mangrove Skink inhabits mangroves, back-beach vegetation and rocky shorelines : the skinks venture into the intertidal zone at low tide to feed on insects and other invertebrates.

The species can be distinguished from the Many-lined Sun Skink Mabuya multifasciata by the lack of keeled scales on the dorsal surface of the Mangrove Skink.  Its colour is grey or brown-grey, flecked with black. There is a faint black band along each side. The throat is often bluish, and the belly greenish or yellow / orange.

The species ranges from the Ryukyu Islands (Japan) though Taiwan and the Philippines to much of Indonesia, New Guinea and northern Queensland (Australia). E. atrocostata is the only Emoia species in Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore. 

Family : SCINCIDAE
Species : Emoia atrocostata
Size (snout to vent) : 10 cm
Size (total length) : 26 cm

References : H1, H3

Top left : full-grown adult on a coral rubble shoreline near Bahowo Village, North Sulawesi, Indonesia.

Middle left : specimen on a rocky beach on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia at Kampong Sedili.

Lower left :  specimen with a markedly orange belly at  Sungei Buloh, Singapore.