Resolving a century of confusion: Taxonomic status of three skinks (Squamata: Scincidae) endemic to the Rwenzori Mountains of Africa

Abstract The Rwenzori Mountains of Africa straddle the borders of Uganda and Democratic Republic of the Congo, and they are home to many endemic and threatened species. Among these species are three endemic skinks with a complicated taxonomic history that are known from very few specimens: Leptosiaphos meleagris (Boulenger, 1907), Panaspis burgeoni (de Witte, 1933) and P. helleri (Loveridge, 1932). These taxa and other congeners in these two closely related skink genera have undergone numerous taxonomic revisions throughout the 20th century, creating confusion about the composition of each genus, especially the Panaspis species. To assess the taxonomic status of P. burgeoni and P. helleri , we examined the morphology and geographic distributions of all known specimens, and compared them with each other and to L. meleagris . Although sample sizes are limited for the Panaspis taxa ( for each taxon), we conclude that P. burgeoni and P. helleri should be transferred to the genus Leptosiaphos and that they are junior subjective synonyms of L. meleagris based on extensive overlap in geography, morphology, and coloration that indicate insufficient diagnostic characters.