Ablepharus is a genus of skinks that contains the common snake-eyed skinks. Their name refers to the fact that their eyelids have fused to a translucent capsule; as in snakes, they thus are physically incapable of blinking. They resemble small lizards and prefer to live in the leaf litter of dry fields and hills. Their scales give them a very shiny, bronze appearance with a characteristically dark stripe down the sides of their bodies. They prey on small insects and other small mollusks.