Riopa

Riopa
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Family:	Scincidae
Subfamily:	Lygosominae
Genus:	Riopa (Gray, 1839)

Riopa is a genus of skinks. It is easy to tell the species apart from most other skinks by bright red coloring on their sides from which they get their name. They also have a bule that runs down the side of their tail.

Diet

Riopas are omnivorous reptiles. They usually eat insects like crickets or worms, but sometimes they can also eat small pieces of meat, usually little mice.

Species

The following species are recognized. ^[1]

• Riopa albopunctata (Gray, 1846) – white-spotted supple skink
• Riopa anguina (Theobald, 1868)
• Riopa deccanensis Bhupathi, Ray, Karuthapandi, Jaiswal, Deepak & Mohapatra, 2025 ^[2] – Deccan Gracile Skink
• Riopa goaensis (Sharma, 1976) – Goan supple skink
• Riopa guentheri (W. Peters, 1879) – Günther's supple skink, Günther's writhing skink
• Riopa lineata Gray, 1839 – lined supple skink
• Riopa lineolata (Stoliczka, 1870) – striped writhing skink
• Riopa popae (Shreve, 1940) – Pope's writhing skink
• Riopa punctata (Gmelin, 1799) – common dotted garden skink, common snake skink, punctate supple skink
• Riopa vosmaerii (Gray, 1839) – Vosmer's writhing skink

References

1. Genus Riopa at The Reptile Database www.reptile-database.org.
2. Bhupathi, Bharath; Ray, Sumidh; Karuthapandi, M.; Jaiswal, Deepa; Deepak, V.; Mohapatra, Pratyush P. (2025-06-13). "A new species of Riopa Gray, 1839 (Reptilia: Squamata: Scincidae) from the Eastern Ghats, India" . Zootaxa. 5647 (2): 117–130. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.5647.2.2. ISSN   1175-5334.