Two new species of the genus Scincella Mittleman, 1950 (Squamata, Scincidae) from southwestern China

The genus Scincella Mittleman, 1950 of the family Scincidae is a species-rich group currently comprising 51 recognized species. In this study, we describe two new species of Scincella from southwestern Sichuan, China: Scincella jinchuanensis sp. nov . and Scincella maerkangensis sp. nov . Scincella jinchuanensis sp. nov ., collected from Jinchuan County, Sichuan Province, is phylogenetically most closely related to the recently described S. heishuiensis . It can be distinguished morphologically by possessing a high number of subdigital lamellae on the fourth toe (17–18), and genetically by an uncorrected pairwise distance of 3.82% in 16S rRNA and 13.7% in COI. Scincella maerkangensis sp. nov ., collected from Maerkang City, Sichuan Province, is phenotypically similar to S. wangyuezhaoi . It differs from the latter in having fewer midbody scale rows and shows a genetic divergence of 6.38% (16S rRNA) and 14.8% (COI). Together with S. wangyuezhaoi and S. heishuiensis , the two new species form a distinct lineage that is clearly separate from other congeners included in the study, with interspecific divergence in 16S rRNA sequences exceeding 3%. The discovery of these two new species raises the number of Scincella species recorded in China to 19, further underscoring the significant reptilian diversity in the Hengduan Mountain region.