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Side-striped Fine-lined Slider (Lerista vittata)

The side-striped fine-lined slider is a small, burrowing, near-limbless skink restricted to Queensland. It is associated with loose leaf litter and soil beneath logs in semi-deciduous vine thicket, and with adjacent open low vegetation on sandy or heavier soils. Clearing can remove its shelter sites and soil habitat, so retained logs, litter and suitable soil patches should be treated as potential habitat during site works.

Conservation status

Commonwealth, EPBC Act 1999: Vulnerable.

Queensland, Nature Conservation Act 1992: Endangered.

Breeding season

The reproductive cycle of Lerista vittata is not directly documented. Activity and reproductive behaviour are most likely during the warmer, wetter months from September to March, so plan clearing to avoid shelter disturbance throughout the year and take extra care during this period.

Reproductive mode: Not recorded for Lerista vittata. A related Lerista species is oviparous.

Clutch size: Not recorded for Lerista vittata. Clutches of 2 to 4 eggs have been recorded in another Lerista species.

Incubation: Not recorded.

Size at hatching or birth: Not recorded.

Age at maturity: Not recorded.

Nest or egg sites: Not recorded. Documented shelter includes loose leaf litter and loose soil beneath logs, but breeding sites have not been identified.

Breeding frequency: Not recorded for Lerista vittata. A related Lerista species is considered likely to produce one clutch per year.

Confirm timing locally before works, using recent rainfall, soil moisture and temperature because activity and reproductive behaviour are associated with warm, wetter conditions.

  • Mating: Mating has not been documented for Lerista vittata. Reproductive behaviour and increased male movement are reported during the warmer, wetter period from September to March.
  • Gravid females: Gravid females and the timing of pregnancy or egg development have not been recorded for Lerista vittata. The September to February window is based on related Lerista, where breeding occurs in spring and the reproductive season is expected to end towards late summer.
  • Egg laying: The reproductive mode and timing of egg laying are not recorded for Lerista vittata. This September to February window is taken from the related Lerista breeding pattern and must not be treated as confirmation of egg-laying dates for this species.
  • Active period: Adults are most likely to be surface active from September to March during warm, wetter conditions. Activity is likely to peak in November and December, and the species is crepuscular to nocturnal, with movement shortly after sunset; humid evenings after rainfall are particularly suitable for detection.
  • Winter inactivity: A defined winter inactivity period has not been recorded. Activity may be reduced during the colder months, particularly June to August, with animals sheltering in loose soil, leaf litter and beneath logs; treat this as a general precaution rather than confirmed brumation.
  • Highest clearing risk: Clearing risk is year round because works can remove logs, leaf litter and loose soil used as shelter, and no confirmed breeding or young period is available. Apply additional care from September to March when animals are more active and may be moving between shelter sites.

Identification

This is an elongate, near-limbless Lerista that uses loose soil and leaf litter for shelter and movement. Daytime surface activity is not expected, so animals may be missed by visual searches that do not inspect sheltering sites.

The species has an elongate body. The front limb is absent or reduced to a stump, and the hindlimb has two or fewer digits. Its distinguishing pattern is a broad, dark, upper lateral band along the side of the body.

Identification: Size and sex

The supplied documents do not provide adult length, mass, sexual differences or reliable field characters for separating males and females. Record these details only when supported by a suitable specimen, photograph or expert identification.

Adult size: Not provided in the supplied documents

Adult mass: Not provided in the supplied documents

Sexual dimorphism: Not provided in the supplied documents

Identification: Similar species and field signs

Lerista cinerea, Lerista colliveri and Lerista wilkinsi occur in the northern Central Queensland range and may also have an absent or reduced front limb and two or fewer hindlimb digits. The side-striped fine-lined slider is separated by its broad, dark, upper lateral band, whereas the other species have fine dark lines down the back and side.

The species is generally expected to remain beneath shelter during the day and to move between sheltering sites at night. No species-specific information is supplied on tracks, scats, calls, nests, sloughs or eyeshine. Potential records should be supported by tissue samples and photo vouchers and sent to the Queensland Museum or relevant state authority for confirmation.

  • Inspect loose leaf litter and logs rather than relying only on open-ground searches.
  • Treat a near-limbless Lerista with a broad dark upper lateral band as a potential record until confirmed.

Distribution

The species is known only from Queensland in the supplied material. Its recorded distribution is centred on the Mount Cooper Tableland, with the broader comparison to similar species referring to northern Central Queensland.

The national range is Queensland only. The supplied documents do not identify a formal bioregion, mapped extent, separate strongholds or named subpopulations beyond the area centred on the Mount Cooper Tableland.

States and territories: Queensland

Known area: Area centred on the Mount Cooper Tableland

Bioregion: Not specified in the supplied documents

Known strongholds or subpopulations: Not specified in the supplied documents

Distribution: Population information

The supplied documents do not give a population estimate, density, trend, generation length or population structure. The EPBC Act and Queensland listings indicate conservation concern, but the documents do not state the basis or current trend.

Population size: Not provided

Population trend: Not provided

Generation length: Not provided

Habitat: Vegetation and soil

The side-striped fine-lined slider is a burrowing species of vine thicket and adjoining low vegetation. Habitat assessment should focus on soil, litter and shelter structure, not only on canopy cover.

The documented habitat is semi-deciduous vine thicket on sandy soils, together with adjacent open patches of low vegetation on heavier soils. Loose leaf litter and loose soil under logs are important habitat features.

  • Map semi-deciduous vine thicket, adjoining low vegetation, sandy soils and heavier soil patches before works.
  • Mark logs, litter beds and areas of loose soil as potential habitat, including where the surrounding vegetation is open.

Habitat: Climate and elevation

The supplied documents do not provide an elevation range or defined climatic limits. Activity is expected to be lower during the coldest months and higher in warm, not overly dry conditions.

Elevation range: Not provided

Climate information: Likely to be most active in warm, not overly dry conditions

Foraging habitat

The supplied documents do not identify the species' diet, prey, feeding range or feeding technique. Its burrowing habits and similarity to related Lerista provide only limited guidance for field planning.

No species-specific information is supplied on food plants, invertebrate prey, feeding frequency, foraging distance or home range. Do not infer a diet or foraging radius from an unconfirmed record.

Diet: Not provided

Foraging range: Not provided

Feeding method: Not provided

  • Retain litter, logs, loose soil and adjoining low vegetation when these features occur within or beside the work area, because the species uses these areas and moves between sheltering sites.
  • If individuals are found, record the substrate, shelter type and distance to nearby suitable habitat to improve site-specific understanding.

Breeding habitat: Breeding information

The supplied documents do not describe breeding for Lerista vittata. Survey and clearing decisions should therefore avoid assuming that breeding sites can be identified from visible nests or burrows.

No information is supplied on mating, egg laying, litter size, incubation, maturity, lifespan or breeding sites. The species is likely to use its soil and litter habitat throughout the year, but the documents do not confirm whether particular habitat features are selected for breeding.

Breeding season: Not provided

Clutch or litter size: Not provided

Gestation or incubation: Not provided

Age at maturity: Not provided

Lifespan: Not provided

Breeding habitat: Not specifically described; documented habitat includes loose litter and soil beneath logs

  • Do not remove logs, litter or loose soil from potential habitat without first considering that these features may be used during an undocumented breeding period.
  • Record any eggs, hatchlings, gravid animals or breeding behaviour and obtain expert confirmation.

Sheltering habitat: Shelter features

Sheltering habitat is the clearest field habitat information available for this species. It occurs in loose substrates and under surface cover, and is likely to move between shelter sites at night.

The species is a burrowing skink found in loose leaf litter and loose soil under logs. It also occurs in adjacent open patches of low vegetation. The supplied documents do not describe permanent burrow dimensions or underground chamber size.

Documented refuges: Loose leaf litter and loose soil under logs

Documented adjacent habitat: Open patches of low vegetation

Burrow dimensions: Not provided

  • Inspect logs and the leaf litter and soil immediately beneath them before moving or removing cover.
  • Use careful hand searches and replace shelter objects in their original position where practicable.
  • Include adjacent open low vegetation and suitable soil in habitat checks, not only areas with dense vine thicket.

Sheltering habitat: Survey implications

The recommended detection approach combines searches of sheltering sites with pitfall trapping. For a targeted survey, the guideline describes pitfall lines with six 10 litre buckets spaced along a 15 metre fence.

Targeted pitfall line: Six 10 litre buckets along a 15 metre fence

Other search method: Turning or inspecting leaf litter and logs used as shelter

  • Use appropriately designed pitfall traps with fauna welfare measures and suitable approvals.
  • Time targeted survey effort for late spring or early summer, while recognising that activity outside this period is not excluded.

Threats: Clearing and construction

The supplied documents do not provide a species-specific threat list. For project planning, the clearest risk is loss or disturbance of the documented soil, litter, log and low-vegetation habitat, particularly where a site is within the restricted Queensland range.

Clearing or ground disturbance can remove logs, leaf litter, loose soil and low vegetation used as sheltering habitat. Roads, pads, trenches and vehicle movement can also break up or compact the connected soil and shelter structure needed by a burrowing skink.

  • Avoid clearing semi-deciduous vine thicket, adjoining low vegetation and suitable sandy or heavier soil patches where practicable.
  • Fence retained habitat and prohibit storage, parking, spoil placement and unnecessary vehicle movement within it.
  • Inspect and manage logs, litter and loose soil before clearing, under an approved fauna handling procedure.

Threats: Other pressures

The supplied documents do not identify species-specific effects of fragmentation, roads, fire, predators, disease or hydrology change. Assess these pressures at the project scale, especially where they alter soil moisture, ground cover, shelter availability or the continuity of suitable habitat.

  • Check whether changed drainage, excavation or fill will dry, waterlog or compact documented habitat.
  • Record introduced predators and other invasive species during site assessment, but do not attribute a species-specific impact without supporting evidence.
  • Use the regional context and habitat-function approach in the survey guideline when judging the significance of habitat loss.

Survey methodology: 1. Map and assess habitat first

Survey the Side-striped Fine-lined Slider, Lerista vittata, using methods suited to a small, burrowing lerista that shelters in leaf litter, loose soil and under logs. The species is nationally listed as Vulnerable and may occur in Queensland project areas, so surveys should be targeted to suitable habitat and timed for warm conditions.

Map the full project area before selecting survey locations, including semi-deciduous vine thicket, sandy soils, loose leaf litter, logs and adjacent open patches of low vegetation on heavier soils.

Assess the condition, extent and regional context of these habitat features, including whether they are rare, permanent or ephemeral and whether the site may support breeding, foraging or sheltering.

Use government, state and local databases, museum records, published and unpublished reports, recovery information and local ecological knowledge to identify records and potential habitat in the surrounding region.

Survey methodology: 2. Search sheltering sites

Search loose leaf litter and logs systematically for sheltering animals, with particular attention to semi-deciduous vine thicket on sandy soils and adjacent open areas on heavier soils.

Search during warm conditions, with priority from late spring to early summer; the species may be active for much of the year but is less likely to be active during the coldest months.

Do not rely on daytime searches of open ground because the species is expected to remain under shelter by day and move between sheltering sites at night.

Handle sheltering objects carefully and replace each log or other cover in its original position after inspection.

Survey methodology: 3. Use targeted pitfall trapping

Use pitfall trapping in combination with searches of leaf litter and logs when the species is most likely to be active.

For a targeted survey, establish pitfall lines comprising six 10 litre buckets along a 15 metre fence.

Operate the trapping under the required animal ethics, fauna handling and weather safeguards, and check traps at a frequency that prevents exposure, overheating, predation or injury.

Record the habitat, weather, trap location, dates, effort and all captures, including non-target animals.

Expect identification problems because other near-limbless Lerista occur in northern Central Queensland; Lerista cinerea, L. colliveri and L. wilkinsi have reduced or absent forelimbs and two or fewer hindlimb digits.

Targeted pitfall effort: Six 10 litre buckets along a 15 metre fence

Likely peak activity: Late spring and early summer

Documented sheltering-site encounter period: September

Survey methodology: Minimum effort and reporting

Use both sheltering-site searches and the targeted pitfall arrangement where suitable habitat may be disturbed.

Document the area searched, search dates, weather, observers, sheltering features inspected, trap configuration, operating dates, trap nights and results.

Support any potential record with clear colour photographs and a tissue sample where authorised and appropriate, because similar Lerista occur in the area.

Send potential records, photographs and authorised tissue samples to the Queensland Museum and the relevant state fauna authority for identification and databasing.

Submit confirmed records to the relevant Queensland wildlife database and include them in the project fauna report.

Escalate a confirmed record or occupied habitat to the project ecologist and environmental officer before disturbance continues.

Before habitat disturbance: Avoid and minimise habitat loss

Treat suitable leaf litter, loose soil, logs and vine thicket as potential habitat until surveys show otherwise. The project team should avoid removing these features and should stage works around the species' likely warm-season activity.

Retain semi-deciduous vine thicket on sandy soils wherever practicable.

Retain adjacent open patches of low vegetation on heavier soils where they adjoin suitable thicket or sheltering features.

Keep logs, deep leaf litter and loose soil in place because the species is reported from these shelter sites.

Maintain connected retained habitat between thicket, open vegetation and other suitable sheltering areas rather than isolating small patches.

Map and mark retained habitat and sheltering features before machinery enters the work area.

Before habitat disturbance: Approvals and work planning

Check the EPBC Act obligations because Lerista vittata is listed nationally as Vulnerable and the protected matters search identified the species or its habitat as potentially occurring in the area.

Check Queensland threatened-species approvals, fauna handling authorisations and any project conditions before clearing or trapping starts.

Prepare a fauna management plan that identifies survey areas, retained habitat, fauna spotter catcher responsibilities, stop-work triggers, handling arrangements and reporting requirements.

Schedule habitat disturbance outside the coldest months where practicable, while recognising that activity may occur throughout much of the year.

Stage clearing so that retained habitat remains available while each work area is surveyed and cleared.

Before habitat disturbance: Pre-clearance setup

Complete a targeted pre-clearance search of leaf litter, logs, loose soil and other sheltering features within the disturbance footprint.

Mark the approved clearing boundary and all habitat to be retained before clearing machinery arrives.

Use exclusion fencing where it can prevent machinery and people from entering retained habitat without fragmenting access between suitable habitat patches.

Brief operators on the species' appearance, its similar Lerista species and the requirement to stop when a potential individual or occupied shelter site is found.

Arrange a suitable holding, identification and release process with an authorised fauna spotter catcher before works begin.

During habitat disturbance: Daily controls

Clear in small, controlled stages under the direction of the fauna spotter catcher. The species is small, burrowing and difficult to distinguish from similar Lerista, so potential sightings require immediate protection and confirmation.

Inspect exclusion fencing and the clearing boundary at the start of each workday and after damage or heavy weather.

Repeat targeted searches of leaf litter, logs and loose soil immediately before clearing each work section.

Keep machinery within the approved footprint and prevent stockpiling of soil, leaf litter, logs or other sheltering material against retained habitat.

Direct machinery to work progressively through each section so the fauna spotter catcher can inspect the next area before disturbance.

Pause work during conditions that increase the risk of trapping, overheating or injuring animals in open pits, trenches or machinery areas.

During habitat disturbance: Fauna spotter catcher and habitat features

The fauna spotter catcher must work ahead of machinery and inspect sheltering sites before they are removed or disturbed.

Lift logs and other cover carefully, inspect the underlying leaf litter and loose soil, and replace features that are to be retained.

Do not crush, bury or scatter retained logs, leaf litter or loose soil that may provide shelter.

Keep any captured animal in a secure, shaded container for the shortest practical time and prevent escape into the active work area.

Only an appropriately authorised person should handle, identify, retain or relocate fauna.

During habitat disturbance: Animal finds, stop-work and records

Stop work immediately within the find area if a potential Lerista vittata is seen, captured or exposed.

Treat a small, elongate, near-limbless Lerista with a broad dark upper lateral band as a potential Mount Cooper striped lerista until it is confirmed, because similar species occur in the region.

Do not rely on field appearance alone where identification is uncertain; take clear photographs and arrange an authorised tissue sample and expert or Queensland Museum confirmation where appropriate.

Release a confirmed or presumed healthy animal into nearby retained habitat with suitable leaf litter, loose soil and logs, under the direction of the fauna spotter catcher and project ecologist.

Send injured animals to an appropriately qualified wildlife carer or veterinarian as soon as practicable.

Record the location, date, time, habitat, disturbance activity, photographs, identification, handling, release location, injury and final outcome for every find.

Resume work only after the fauna spotter catcher and project environmental officer agree that the area is safe to proceed.

After habitat disturbance: Post-clearance checks

Post-clearance work must confirm that no animals or suitable sheltering features were missed and that retained habitat remains protected. Keep records that allow the project team to demonstrate how each find and disturbance area was managed.

Inspect the cleared footprint and the edge of retained habitat after each staged clearing event for exposed animals, disturbed logs, displaced leaf litter and damaged exclusion fencing.

Reinspect suitable retained habitat during warm conditions, with priority from late spring to early summer, if the project has removed or disturbed sheltering features nearby.

Check any pits, trenches, spoil areas and stored materials before they are closed, moved or reused.

Record all additional observations and submit confirmed records to the relevant Queensland wildlife database.

After habitat disturbance: Monitoring and compliance

Monitor retained semi-deciduous vine thicket, adjacent open low vegetation, logs, leaf litter and loose-soil areas for disturbance and weed or feral-animal impacts.

Maintain exclusion fencing and habitat protection measures until construction traffic and clearing risks have ended.

Compare post-clearance habitat condition with the pre-clearance map and document any unavoidable loss or degradation.

Report survey effort, captures, relocations, injuries, mortalities, habitat loss, unexpected records and corrective actions to the project environmental officer and relevant regulators.

Apply any approved offset or environmental approval condition if residual impacts on nationally listed habitat remain.

Rehabilitation actions: Recreate sheltering habitat

Rehabilitation should recreate the sheltering conditions described for Lerista vittata rather than relying only on canopy planting. Focus on connected native vegetation, loose ground cover, logs and suitable soil structure.

Replant or regenerate semi-deciduous vine thicket on suitable sandy soils where that vegetation type has been removed.

Restore adjacent open patches of low native vegetation on heavier soils where they form part of the local habitat mosaic.

Retain or reinstate locally sourced logs and coarse woody debris across suitable areas, placing them so they provide shelter without creating barriers between retained patches.

Replace leaf litter over suitable soil surfaces and avoid compacting or sealing the loose soil used for burrowing and shelter.

Use local native plant material and avoid introducing weeds or non-local vegetation that changes the ground layer.

Rehabilitation actions: Maintain and measure recovery

Control weeds and manage feral predators and other invasive animals where they threaten the recovering habitat, noting that foxes, cats, pigs, goats, rabbits and cane toads were identified as invasive animals in the protected matters information.

Prevent construction access, vehicle movement and soil stockpiling across rehabilitated habitat until ground cover and sheltering features are established.

Avoid fire or other maintenance actions that remove the leaf litter and log cover needed by a burrowing species, and manage fire in accordance with the approved ecological and fire plan.

Monitor rehabilitation during warm conditions and repeat searches of logs, leaf litter and loose soil using the species' targeted survey methods.

Measure success by survival and establishment of native thicket and low vegetation, retention of loose soil, leaf litter and logs, absence of active erosion and weeds, and records of Lerista vittata or suitable shelter use.

Continue monitoring for the period required by approval conditions and adjust weed, predator, access or fire controls if habitat condition declines.

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