Studies of aggression and space use are essential to understanding resource use by reptiles, particularly lizards. Research in this area, however, exhibits bias in that the seminal work has been done on (1) species that are highly visible in their habitats (e.g. Iguanians); and (2) males. Studies of secretive species such as skinks and of females are less common. Here, we present results of a lab study of dyadic encounters of adult females of a common North American skink: Scincella lateralis (Little Brown Skink), and compare them to results obtained from an earlier study of adult males of the same species. Female S. lateralis never interacted unless they were within one body length of each other. The most common behavior exhibited was avoidance of one lizard (the subordinate) away from the other lizard (the dominant). As a result, the two lizards spent more time apart than close together and rarely shared the retreat. The larger of the two females was dominant in 9 of 10 trials. Compared to adult males, adult females showed far fewer aggressive behaviors such as lunging or chasing, and never bit each other. Unlike males, however, subordinate female S. lateralis exhibited tail twitching significantly more often than did dominants, suggesting this behavior may be a social signal for females, though the data suggest there may be other possible functions. Despite differences in the frequency of behaviors exhibited, patterns of space use and retreat use were the same in females as they were in males.

The aggressive behaviors of adult male Little Brown Skinks, Scincella lateralis, and their effects on access to an important resource (a single retreat) were the subject of a study consisting of 10 laboratory trials in which the behavioral interactions between a pair of individuals was recorded. Analysis of these interactions made it possible to identify a dominant and a subordinate male in each trial; the male with the greater bulk was dominant in 9 of the 10 trials. Aggressive behaviors recorded include lunging, chasing, and biting; the dominant male performed lunging significantly more often than the subordinate male and was the only individual to exhibit chasing. The most common behavior recorded was avoidance which was shown almost exclusively by the subordinate male. Both dominant and subordinate males exhibited tail twitching which we hypothesize to be a sign of agitation. The two males spent significantly more time on opposite sides of the observation chamber than on the same side and almost never occupied the single retreat simultaneously because the subordinate male repeatedly moved to avoid the dominant male. The implications of these results on spacing patterns and resource use of Scincella lateralis in the wild are discussed.