A new species of the genus Scincella Mittleman, 1950 (Squamata, Scincidae) from Guizhou Province, southwest China

By

Xu, Yuhao
Gong, Zhonghao
Nguyen, Tan
Deng, Jundong
Bragin, Andrey M.
Weng, Shiyang
Zhang, Tierui
Poyarkov, Nikolay
Peng, Lifang

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2025-11-3

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

1258

Pages

9--33

Subjects

molecular phylogeny , Morphology , Scincella tenuistriata sp. nov. , taxonomy

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1258.161382

 

Abstract

<br> A new species of the genus<br> Scincella<br> Mittleman is described from Qixingguan District, Bijie City, Guizhou Province, China, based on morphological and molecular evidence. The new species,<br> Scincella tenuistriata<br> sp. nov.<br> , is diagnosed by the medium body size; tympanum diameter significantly larger than the palpebral disc; midbody scale rows 24; total ventral + gular scale rows numbering 61–66; toes nearly or just touching fingers when limbs are adpressed; 9 or 10 enlarged lamellae beneath finger IV, and 11 or 12 beneath toe IV; and the dark dorsolateral stripes narrow and wavy, covering 0.5–1 scale rows on the trunk, with four scale rows in between on the dorsum. Phylogenetic analyses based on the mitochondrial<br> 12S<br> ,<br> 16S<br> , and<br> CO1<br> gene fragments indicate that the new species is most closely related to<br> S. alia<br> Bragin, Zenin, Nguyen &amp; Poyarkov, but differs by an uncorrected<br> p<br> -distance of 8.6–8.8% in the<br> CO1<br> gene. The discovery of the new species raises the number of currently recognized<br> Scincella<br> species to 51, underscoring the underestimated diversity of the genus.<br>