Scincella devorator

Morphological characters (determination after Darevsky et al. 2004). A medium-sized skink: SVL 51.2–53.9 mm (n = 2 females) TaL 65.7 mm (n = 1). For further measurements and proportions see Table 1.

Head longer than wide; rostral wider than high; supranasals absent; prefrontals separated from each other by frontal; parietals in contact posteriorly; enlarged nuchal scales in 3 pairs; loreals 2; supraciliaries 7 or 8; supraoculars 4, followed by one small postsupraocular; primary temporal single; secondary temporals 2, upper very large and overlapped by lower one; lower eyelid with a large undivided opaque window, separated from supralabials by a row of small scales; supralabials 7, the fifth and sixth below the eye; ear opening without projecting lobules; tympanum deeply sunk; mental wider than long; infralabials 6; postmental undivided; midbody scales in 28 rows; two medial scale rows on the neck widened; dorsal scales between lateral stripes in ½ + 6 + ½ rows, smooth, larger than lateral scales; paravertebral scales 63–66; ventrals in 61–66 transverse rows, smooth; precloacals 2, enlarged; medial subcaudals widened; limbs short, pentadactyl; fingers and toes meeting when adpressed; subdigital lamellae smooth, 14 under fourth finger and 17–19 under fourth toe.

Coloration in alcohol. Dorsum bronze brown, with two silver gray clear bands extending from parietals to base of tail and a dark wide vertebral stripe; numerous blackish spots on the labials; upper lateral zone with a distinct dark stripe from behind the eye to hind limb, with light spots; the lower edge broken in numerous small black dots; venter and under surface of tail base cream. For coloration in life see Fig. 3.

The adult females were collected between 10:00 and 16:00 while crossing a forest path. The surrounding habitat was secondary forest of hardwood and shrub.

This species is currently known only from Quang Ninh and Bac Giang provinces in northeastern Vietnam (Nguyen et al., 2009). This is the first record of Scincella devorator from northwestern Vietnam.