Scincella ngati Pham, Do, Nguyen, Hoang, Nguyen, Le, Le, Ziegler & Pham, 2026, sp. nov.

Scincella ngati sp. nov. Figs 3, 4, 5, 6 Material examined. Holotype. • IB R.6445 (Field number PY 2023.18) (Figs 3, 4, 5), adult male, collected on 20 May 2023 by Do et al. in the evergreen forest of Krong Trai NR (13.84157, 108.57566, at an elevation of 232 m a. s. l.), Dak Lak Province, Vietnam. Paratypes. • IB R.6446 (Field number PY 2023.17), adult male; • IB R.6447 (Field number PY 2023.19), adult male; • IB R.6448 (Field number PY 2023.108), adult male; • IB R.6449 (Field number PY 2023.16); • adult female, IB R.6450 (Field number PY 2023.20); • adult female, IB R.6451 (Field number PY 2023.21); • adult female, IB R.6452 (Field number PY 2023.109); • adult female, all with the same data as the holotype. Diagnosis. The new species can be distinguished from other species of Scincella by a combination of the following characteristics: size medium (SVL ≤ 48.3 mm); primary temporals two; external ear opening without lobules; loreals two; supralabials seven (rarely eight); infralabials six; enlarged nuchals 0–2 on each side; midbody scales in 32–34 rows; dorsal scales smooth, in eight rows across the back; paravertebral scales 68–70, not widened; ventral scales in 64–68 rows; 10 or 11 smooth lamellae beneath finger IV and 16 or 17 beneath toe IV; toes not reaching the fingers when limbs adpressed along body; dorsal surface of body and tail bronze brown with a discontinuous black vertebral stripe, one scale wide, from middle of neck to tail base; a black stripe, two scales wide, interrupted by small pale spots, running from nostril to eye and extending from posterior margin of eye along upper part of flank and tail base. Description of holotype. Size medium (SVL 47.3 mm), tail long (TaL 69.5 mm); head longer than wide (HL 8.5 mm, HW 5.8 mm); snout obtuse, round anteriorly; rostral wider than high, distinctly visible from above; supranasals absent; frontonasal wider than long, in contact with rostral, nasals, anterior loreals, and frontal; prefrontals in contact with each other; frontal narrowing posteriorly, approximately 1.1 times longer than the distance to the tip of snout, in contact with prefrontals, first and second supraoculars, and frontoparietals; frontoparietals in contact with each other anteriorly, bordered by frontal, three supraoculars, parietals, and interparietal; interparietal lozenge-shaped, with a transparent spot posteriorly; parietals in contact posteriorly, posterolateral border surrounded by three scales on each side and one nuchal scale; enlarged nuchals 1 / 0; nostril in center of nasal, in contact with rostral, frontonasal, loreal, first supralabial; loreals two, anterior loreal higher but narrower than posterior one; preocular three; presuboculars three; supraciliaries 7 / 6; supraoculars four, the first longest, the second widest, fourth supraocular followed by a small posterior supraocular and a small postocular; postocular two; postsuboculars three; primary temporals two, lower one in contact with sixth and seventh supralabials; secondary temporals two, upper one large, in contact with posterolateral border of parietal, overlapped by lower one and parietal; lower eyelid with an undivided, bearing elongated, horizontally oriented transparent window opaque window (palpebral disc), separated from supralabials by two rows of granular scales; supralabials 8 / 7, fifth and sixth below the eye; external ear opening present, anterior margin with indistinct lobules, tympanum deeply sunk; mental wider than long, round anteriorly, in contact with anterior infralabials and postmental; infralabials six, first small; postmental undivided, in contact with mental, first infralabials on each side, and first pair of chinshields; chinshields in three pairs, first pair in contact with each other medially, second pair separated from each other by a gular scale, and third pair separated from each other by three scales; midbody scales in 34 rows; dorsal scales smooth, in eight rows across the back; paravertebral scales 70, not widened; ventral scales smooth, in 68 rows; precloacals four, inner scales overlapping outer ones, central two enlarged, left one overlapped by right one; tail thick at base, medial subcaudals slightly widened. Limbs relatively developed (FlL 0.25 / SVL, HlL / SVL 0.38), pentadactyl, dorsal surface of digits covered by two scale rows on basal and by a single row on terminal phalanges; subdigital lamellae keeled, in one row under the digits, 11 / 11 under fourth finger and 17 / 17 under fourth toe; toes and fingers separated when adpressed along body, adpressed forelimb reaching the eye (Table 3). In preservative, the hemipenes are deeply forked with two symmetrical lobes, long. Lobes well-developed, round, with lateral orientation. When fully everted, the long lobes curve forward and outward and overlap at the ends; the rolled-out part has regular transverse grooves. Hemipenis bifurcating about 81 % of its total length to base (Fig. 4 C). Coloration in life. Dorsal surface of body and tail bronze brown with a discontinuous black vertebral stripe, from middle of neck to tail base; a black stripe, two scales wide, interrupted by small pale spots, running from nostril to eye and extending from posterior margin of eye along upper part of flank and tail base; a cream lateral stripe, edged above dark stripe, in one scale wide, running from nostril to eye and extending from posterior margin of eye along upper part of flank and tail base; supralabials and infralabials with dark bars on sutures; lateral side of the neck and flank pale grey with small bright spots; dorsal surface of limbs brown with pale spots; chin, throat, venter, underside of tail, underside of fore and hind limbs greyish cream (Fig. 3). Coloration in preservative. Dorsal surface of body and tail bronze brown with a discontinuous black vertebral stripe, one scale wide, from middle of neck to tail base; a black stripe, two scales wide, interrupted by small pale spots, running from nostril to eye and extending from posterior margin of eye along upper part of flank and tail base; supralabials and infralabials with dark bars on sutures; lateral side of the neck and flank pale grey; upper side of limbs brown with pale spots; chin, throat, venter, underside of tail, underside of fore and hind limbs greyish cream (Fig. 4). Sexual dimorphism and variation. The females differ from males in the absence of hemipenes. Most of the morphological characteristics of paratypes agree with those of the holotype; the following characters are variable: (1) midbody scales in 32 rows in seven paratypes (IB R.6447 –6452); (2) paravertebral scale rows: 69 in IB R.6447, 68 in IB R.6448; (3) ventral scale rows: 64 in IB R.6448 and IB R.6452, 66 in IB R.6451, and 67 in IB R.6449; (4) enlarged nuchal: 1 / 1 in IB R.6446, IB R.6447, IB R.6447, IB R.6449, IB R.6450, and IB R.6452; 1 / 2 in IB R.6448 and IB R.6451; subdigital lamellae on fourth finger: 10 / 10 in IB R.6446, IB R.6448 –52 and 10 / 11 in IB R.6447; subdigital lamellae on fourth toe: 16 / 16 in IB R.6446, IB R.6447, IB R.6452, and 17 / 16 in IB R.6451 (Table 3). Distribution. Scincella ngati sp. nov. is currently known only from the type locality in Krong Trai NR, Dak Lak Province, Vietnam. Natural history. Specimens were found on the ground in leaf litter of evergreen forest between 19: 00 and 22: 00. The surrounding habitat was evergreen forest with medium and small hardwoods mixed with shrubs (Fig. 7). Air temperatures at the sites ranged from 26.8–33.5 ° C and relative humidity was 60–78 %. Other reptile species encountered at the sites included Acanthosaura cuongi Ngo, Le, Nguyen, Nguyen, Nguyen, Phan, Nguyen, Ziegler & Do; Calotes bachae Hartmann, Geissler, Poyarkov, Ihlow, Galoyan, Rödder, & Böhme; C. versicolor (Daudin), Cyrtodactylus sp.; Dixonius vietnamensis Das, and Eutropis macularia (Blyth). Etymology. We name the new species in honor of late Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ngat Nguyen Le from Hanoi National University of Education, in recognition of his contributions to the herpetofaunal exploration of Vietnam. We recommend “Ngat’s Smooth Skink” as the common English name and “Th ằn l ằn c ổ ng ật” as the common name in Vietnamese language for the new species. Comparisons. We compared the new species with other known taxa in the genus Scincella from Asia based on data obtained from the literature, and to their closest relatives based on the phylogeny of Scincella, including S. auranticaudata, S. badenensis, S. nigrofasciata, and S. rupicola. The new species is distinguished from S. auranticaudata by having a smaller size (males with maximal SVL 47.3 mm, n = 3 vs 62.1 mm, n = 2 and females with maximal SVL 48.3 mm, n = 5 vs 51.6 mm, n = 2), toes separated from fingers when limbs adpressed along body (vs overlapped), a smaller HL / SVL ratio (0.18–0.19 vs 0.21–0.25) and HW / SVL ratio (0.11–0.12 vs 0.14–0.15), and different dorsal color pattern (dorsum with one row of longitudinal black dots vs dorsum with two rows of longitudinal black dots); from S. badenensis by having a smaller size (males with maximal SVL 47.3 mm, n = 3 vs 64.4 mm, n = 4 and females with maximal SVL 48.3 mm, n = 5 vs 53.8 mm, n = 2), a greater ratio of HIL / SVL (0.37–0.39 vs 0.31–0.35), fewer lamellae beneath toe IV (16–17 vs 18–20), toes separated from fingers when limbs adpressed along body (vs overlapped), and different dorsal color pattern in males (dorsum with one row of longitudinal black dots vs absent); from S. nigrofasciata by having fewer ventral scales (64–68 vs 69–74), toes separated from fingers when limbs adpressed along body (vs overlapped), a greater % of bifurcated hemipenis (81 % vs 63 %), and different dorsal color pattern (dorsum with one row of longitudinal black dots vs dorsum with 5–7 regular discontinuous stripes); from S. rupicola by having a greater % of bifurcated hemipenis (81 % vs 69–77 %), toes separated from fingers when limbs adpressed along body (vs overlapped), and different dorsal c