Shy highlander: a new species of the genus Scincella Mittleman, 1950 (Squamata, Scincidae) from montane forests of Yunnan Province, China Author Xu, Yuhao 0000-0001-6094-6680 State Key Laboratory of Plateau Ecology and Agriculture, Qinghai University, Xining 810016, Qinghai, China Author Nguyen, Tan Van 0000-0001-5413-968X The School of Medicine & Pharmacy, Duy Tan University, Da Nang 550000, Vietnam & Center for Entomology & Parasitology Research, Duy Tan University, Da Nang 550000, Vietnam Author Deng, Jundong State Key Laboratory of Plateau Ecology and Agriculture, Qinghai University, Xining 810016, Qinghai, China Author Zhang, Tierui https://orcid.org/0009-0000-1869-9313 Anhui Province Key Laboratory of the Conservation and Exploitation of Biological Resource, College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu 241000, Anhui, China Author Sun, Fanyue https://orcid.org/0009-0004-7542-6046 State Key Laboratory of Plateau Ecology and Agriculture, Qinghai University, Xining 810016, Qinghai, China Author Liu, Junchang Fuxing Community, Zhaotong 657799, Yunnan, China Author Poyarkov, Nikolay A. 0000-0002-7576-2283 Department of Vertebrate Zoology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Leninskiye Gory, GSP – 1, Moscow 119991, Russia Author Peng, Lifang 0000-0001-9325-7048 State Key Laboratory of Plateau Ecology and Agriculture, Qinghai University, Xining 810016, Qinghai, China text Herpetozoa 2026 2026-04-17 39 127 143 journal article 314959 10.3897/herpetozoa.39.e188979 874d83c1-43b7-4169-892b-af97803f10fb A87D69F0-954E-4E07-AAD0-B4A0D82F2089

Table 2. Comparison of main morphological characters of Scincella verecunda sp. nov., S. ouboteri, S. ochracea, and S. reevesii. Refer to the Materials and Methods for abbreviations of morphological characters. Bold text indicates interspecific diagnostic characters that can be used to distinguish among species.

Species	S. verecunda sp. nov.	S. ouboteri	S. ochracea	S. reevesii
SVL (mm)	34.3–48.7	40.9–58.6	34.2–51.0	28.5–58.0
TAL (mm)	–	52.9–76.9	62.3–75.0	36–85
TAL / SVL	1.74 – 1.76	1.09–1.88	–	1.57 – 1.70
AGD (mm)	18.62–28.88	22.0–34.3	26.1–30.0	20.3–24.1
AGD / SVL	0.54 – 0.61	0.52–0.59	–	–
HL 1 (mm)	7.83–9.73	–	–	–
HL 2 (mm)	6.26–7.59	7.8–9.5	–	–
HW (mm)	4.35–5.44	5.4–7.5	–	–
HH (mm)	2.74–4.27	4.0–5.3	–	–
ED (mm)	1.81–2.73	2.2–3.0	–	–
TD (mm)	1.11–1.44	1.5–2	–	–
SNL (mm)	2.3–2.8	3.5–4.3	–	–
SNL / SVL	0.05–0.07	0.07–0.09	–	–
FLL / SVL	0.18-0.22	0.22–0.29	0.17–0.27	0.19–0.30
HLL / SVL	0.25 - 0.28	0.33–0.42	0.30–0.38	0.34–0.43
PD	Absent	Present	Present	Present
PF	Separated	Separated	In contact	In contact or separated
SO	4	4	4	4
SCI	6–7	7	7–8	6–9
Lor	2	2	2	2
TEMP	1 + 2	2 + 2	2 +?	–
SL	7	7	7	7
IL	6	6–7	5–6	6–7
NU	3 – 4	2–4	0–3	0–3
MBSR	25 – 26	32	30–32	28–34
PVSR	62 – 65	65–73	61–67	61–77
DBR	1 / 2 + 6 (rarely 4) + 1 / 2	6	6–8	8
GS + VS	65–68	65–71	66–71	63–79
F 4 S	6 – 9	10–12	–	–
T 4 S	11–13	18–20	15–19	14–18
Limbs adpressed	No	Yes	No	Yes or no
Source	This study	Pham et al. (2024)	Bourret (1937); Pham et al. (2015); Neang et al. (2018)	Smith (1935); Zhao et al. (1999); Chen et al. (2001); Neang et al. (2018)