Photographed on a coral shoreline near Bahowo Village, North Sulawesi, Indonesia. 
 

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

References : H1, H3

The various Mangrove Skink or Emoia species not only inhabit mangroves but are also found amongst back-beach vegetation, and on rocky shorelines where they 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.

It 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. 

	This specimen has a markedly orange belly. Photographed at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, Singapore