Hiding in the valley: a new national record of Ablepharus eremchenkoi, with rediscovery of Ablepharus alaicus in China: phylogeny, morphology and natural history notes

The genus Ablepharus Lichtenstein, 1823 contains the common snake-eyed skinks, distributed from southern Europe and northern Africa to eastern Asia. Ablepharus alaicus Elpatjevsky, 1901 inhabits Central Asia and, according to historical literature, was once recorded in north-western China. However, there are no voucher records of this species from China. Some populations of a subspecies of A. alaicus have been elevated to new species, for example, A. eremchenkoi (Panfilov, 1999). However, no detailed studies have been conducted. In August and September 2023, we captured sixteen and fourteen skink specimens from Wuqia County and Qapqal Xibe Autonomous County, respectively, in Xinjiang, northwest China. Morphological and phylogenetic comparisons showed that the skinks collected from these two locations belong to A. eremchenkoi and A. alaicus, respectively. In this study, we confirmed the first record of A. eremchenkoi in China, rediscovered A. alaicus, reported voucher records for these two skinks and reviewed the taxonomic history of Ablepharus in Xinjiang, northwest China.