Scincella

Scincella is a genus of lizards in the skink family, Scincidae, commonly referred to as ground skinks.[1] The exact number of species in the genus is unclear, as taxonomic reclassification is ongoing, and sources vary widely. Scincella species primarily range throughout the temperate regions of the world and are typically small, fossorial lizards, which consume a wide variety of arthropods.

Horsetail Falls ground skink (Scincella caudaequinae) municipality of Jaumave, Tamaulipas, Mexico (11 August 2003).

Scincella
Scincella lateralis, a ground skink
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Family:	Scincidae
Subfamily:	Sphenomorphinae
Genus:	Scincella Mittleman, 1950[1]
Synonyms
Paralipinia Darevsky & Orlov, 1997

Species

The genus Scincella contains the following 38 recognized species:[2][3]

• Scincella apraefrontalis Nguyen et al., 2010 - Huulien ground skink
• Scincella assata (Cope, 1864) - red forest skink
• Scincella badenensis Nguyen, Nguyen, Nguyen, & Murphy, 2019 - Baden ground skink
• Scincella baraensis Nguyen, Nguyen, Nguyen & Murphy, 2020
• Scincella barbouri (Stejneger, 1925) - Barbour's ground skink
• Scincella boettgeri (Van Denburgh, 1912) - Boettger's ground skink
• Scincella capitanea Ouboter, 1986 - large ground skink
• Scincella caudaequinae (H.M. Smith, 1951) - horsehead ground skink
• Scincella cherriei (Cope, 1893) - brown forest skink
• Scincella darevskii Nguyen et al., 2010 - Darevsky’s ground skink
• Scincella devorator (Darevsky, Orlov & Cuc, 2004)
• Scincella doriae (Boulenger, 1887) - Doria's ground skink, Doria's smooth skink
• Scincella forbesorum (Taylor, 1937)
• Scincella formosensis (Van Denburgh, 1912) - Van Denburgh's ground skink
• Scincella gemmingeri (Cope, 1864) - forest ground skink
• Scincella huanrenensis Zhao & Huang, 1982
• Scincella incerta (Stuart, 1940)
• Scincella kikaapoa García-Vázquez et al., 2010
• Scincella lateralis (Say, 1823) - little brown skink, ground skink
• Scincella macrotis (Steindachner, 1867) - large-eared ground skink
• Scincella melanosticta (Boulenger, 1887) - black ground skink, black-spotted smooth skink
• Scincella modesta (Günther, 1864) - modest ground skink
• Scincella monticola (K.P. Schmidt, 1925) - mountainous dwarf skink
• Scincella nigrofasciata Neang, Chan, & Poyarkov, 2018
• Scincella ochracea (Bourret, 1937)
• Scincella potanini (Günther, 1896)
• Scincella przewalskii (Bedriaga, 1912)
• Scincella punctatolineata (Boulenger, 1893) - Burma smooth skink
• Scincella rara (Darevsky & Orlov, 1997) - double subdigital-pads skink
• Scincella reevesii (Gray, 1838) - Reeves's smooth skink
• Scincella rufocaudata (Darevsky & Nguyen, 1983) - red-tailed ground skink
• Scincella rupicola (M.A. Smith, 1916)
• Scincella schmidti (Barbour, 1927)
• Scincella sikimmensis (Blyth, 1854) Sikkim ground skink, bronzy-brown skink
• Scincella silvicola (Taylor, 1937)
• Scincella tsinlingensis (Hu & Zhao, 1966)
• Scincella vandenburghi (K.P. Schmidt, 1927) - Korean skink, Tsushima ground skink, Tsushima smooth skink)
• Scincella victoriana (Shreve, 1940)[1]

Nota bene: A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than Scincella.

References

1. "Scincella". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 5 December 2006.
2. Scincella at the Reptarium.cz Reptile Database. Accessed 11 July 2014.
3. Nguyen, Sang Ngoc; Nguyen, Vu Dang Hoang; Nguyen, Luan Thanh; Murphy, Robert W. (2020-10-28). "A new skink of the genus Scincella Mittleman, 1950 (Squamata: Scincidae) from southern Vietnam". Zootaxa. 4868 (3): 423–434. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4868.3.6. ISSN 1175-5334.

Further reading

• Mittleman MB (1950). "The Generic Status of Scincus lateralis Say, 1823". Herpetologica 6 (2): 17–24. (Scincella, new genus).
• Ouboter PE (1986). "A revision of the genus Scincella (Reptilia: Sauria: Scincidae) of Asia, with some notes on its evolution". Zoologische Verhandelingen 229: 1-66.