Scincella Mittleman, 1950

Linkem, Charles W., Diesmos, Arvin C. & Brown, Rafe M., 2011, Molecular systematics of the Philippine forest skinks (Squamata: Scincidae: Sphenomorphus): testing morphological hypotheses of interspecific relationships, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 163 (4), pp. 1217-1243 : 1237

Scincella Mittleman, 1950

Type species: Scincella lateralis ( Say, 1823) .

Definition: The clade comprising Scincella lateralis ( Say, 1823) and all species that share a more recent common ancestor with Scincella lateralis than with Anomalopus verreauxii , Calyptotis scutirostrum , Coeranoscincus frontalis , Coggeria naufragus , Ctenotus taeniolatus , Eremiascincus richardsonii , Eulamprus quoyii , Glaphyromorphus isolepis , Gnypetoscincus queenslandiae , Hemiergis decresiencsis , Insulasaurus wrighti , Lerista lineata , Lipinia pulchella , Lissonota maculata , Lobulia elegans , Nangura spinosa , Notoscincus ornatus , Ophioscincus australis , Otosaurus cumingii , Papuascincus stanleyanus , Parvoscincus sisoni , Pinoyscincus jagori , Prasinohaema flavipes , Saiphos equalis , Sphenomorphus melanopogon , Tytthoscincus hallieri .

Description: Scincella can be diagnosed by the following combination of characters: (1) body size medium (SVL usually <65 mm); (2) alpha palate (Greer, 1974) with nine premaxillary teeth; (3) long, thin postorbital bone usually present; and (4) with a transparent window in a movable lower eyelid. Transparent window may be lacking in southern populations of Sp. cheerei .

Included species: Scincella apraefrontalis Nguyen, Nguyen, Bohme & Ziegler, 2010 , Scincella assata (Cope, 1864) , Scincella barbouri (Stejneger, 1925) , Scincella boettgeri (Van Denburgh, 1912) , Scincella capitanea Oubeter, 1986 , Scincella caudaequinae (Smith, 1951) , Scincella cherriei (Cope, 1893) , Scincella doriae ( Boulenger, 1887) , Scincella forbesora (Taylor, 1937) , Scincella formosensis (Van Denburgh, 1912) , Scincella gemmingeri (Cope, 1864) , Scincella inconspicua (Müller, 1894) , Scincella incerta (Stuart, 1940) , Scincella kikaapoa Garcia-Vazquez , Canseco- Marquez & Nieto-Montes de Oca, 2010, Scincella lateralis ( Say, 1823) , Scincella macrotis (Steindachner, 1867) , Scincella melanosticta ( Boulenger, 1887) , Scincella modesta (Günther, 1864) , Scincella monticola (Schmidt, 1927) , Scincella ochracea (Bourret, 1937) , Scincella potanini (Günther, 1896) , Scincella przewalskii (Bedriaga, 1912) , Scincella punctatolineata (Boulenger, 1893) , Scincella rarus (Myers & Donnelly), 1991 , Scincella reevesi (Gray, 1838) , Scincella rufocaudatus Darevsky & Nguyen, 1983 , Scincella rupicola (Smith, 1927) , Scincella schmidti (Barbour, 1927) , Scincella silvicola (Taylor, 1937) , Scincella tsinglingensis (Hu & Djao, 1966) , Scincella vandenburghi (Schmidt, 1927) , and Scincella victoriana (Shreve, 1940) .

Comment: The New World species Scincella cherriei and Scincella assata are nested within the genus Scincella , sister to the North American species Scincella lateralis . We predict that Scincella rarus , and Scincella incertus also will be members of this clade. When Greer (1974: 33) revised the genus Leiolepisma , he provided detailed comments about the potential relationships of these Central American skinks. Morphologically, these species are a mix of Sphenomorphus and Scincella , with Scincella assatus and Scincella incertus lacking a postorbital bone but possessing a window in the lower eye (characters of Scincella ) and Scincella cherriei possessing a postorbital bone but having population variation in the presence of the lower eyelid window. Greer (1974) inferred that Scincella cherriei was the primitive form of the Central American radiation owing to the possession of the postorbital bone and placed these species in Sphenomorphus . He noted that this did not make sense biogeographically because it inferred a separate migration across the Bering Bridge, but he argued it was more plausible than the re-evolution of the postorbital bone in Scincella cherriei . Our molecular evidence shows that the Central American species are part of the same radiation as North American Scincella , following the biogeographical expectation. It is therefore reasonable to move these Central American skinks to the genus Scincella .