Taxonomy
The species is subdivided into five subspecies:
- Florida Keys Mole Skink, P.p. egregius Baird 1859: occurs only on some of the Florida Keys.
- Cedar Key Mole Skink, P.p. insularis Mount 1965: occurs only on three islands at Cedar Key.
- Bluetail Mole Skink, P.p. lividus Mount 1965: occurs only in interior central Florida; shares its Florida Scrub habitat with the Sand Skink.
- Peninsula Mole Skink, P.p. onocrepis Cope 1871.
- Northern Mole Skink, P.p. similis McConkey 1957.
The species was first described by Baird in 1859 as Plistodon egregius. In 1871, P. onocrepis was described by Cope. In 1875, the two species were reassigned to the genus Eumeces. In 1935, two subspecies were defined, E.e. egregius and E.e. onocrepis, and in 1957, E.e. similis was separated from E.e. egregius. In 2005 North American members of genus Eumeces were reassigned to Plestiodon.
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