Discovery of a new skink of the genus Scincella Mittleman, 1950 (Squamata, Scincidae) from Guizhou Province, China

Scincella potanini was long considered the only species of the genus Scincella recorded in Guizhou Province, China. This study describes a new species of the genus Scincella, Scincella qianica sp. nov., from Guizhou, China, based on an integrative taxonomic approach combining molecular and morphological data. The new species can be distinguished from all known congeners by the following combination of morphological characters: (1) medium body size in adults (SVL length up to 44.8 mm); (2) tail relatively long, TAL / SVL ratio 1.76–2.14 in original tail specimens; (3) toes not in contact with fingers when limbs adpressed; (4) infralabials six to seven; (5) supraciliaries six, rarely seven; (6) tympanum deeply sunk, without lobules; (7) primary temporal one; (8) three pairs of nuchals; (9) midbody scale row counts 26; (10) paravertebral scale row counts 61–66; (11) ventral scale row counts 46–53; (12) 9–10 enlarged lamellae beneath finger IV, and 13–14 beneath toe IV; (13) dark dorsolateral stripes with relatively straight upper edge, extending from the tip of snout to the end of tail, with 1 / 2 + 4 + 1 / 2 rows of dorsal scales in the middle; (14) ventral surface covered with discontinuous black longitudinal stripes.

In the phylogenetic analyses, the new species was nested within a highly supported lineage, forming a sister taxon with S. alia, and exhibits at least 15.8 % genetic divergence from other congeners based on the mitochondrial CO 1 gene.