Many-lined Skink - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

The taxonomy of this species is somewhat unclear, even amongst researchers. Most commonly, two subspecies are recognized:

• E.m. multivirgatus (Hallowell 1857), the Northern Many-lined Skink, and
• E.m. epipleurotus (Cope 1880), the Variable Skink.

The latter is sometimes treated as a separate species Eumeces epipleurotus or Eumeces gaigeae (Taylor 1935), or given as the subspecies E.m. gaigeae. These names are in honor of a Helen Beulah Thompson Gaige (1890–1976), a herpetologist from the University of Michigan.

E.m. epipleurotus is also called the Two-lined Skink.