Vaillant's mabuya

Chioninia vaillantii, also known commonly as Vaillant's mabuya or Vaillant's skink, is a species of skink in the family Scincidae. The species is endemic to the Cape Verde Islands. There are two recognized subspecies.

Conservation status
C. vaillantii is listed as endangered by the IUCN because the species occurs as a very fragmented population, and the quality of its habitat is declining.

Geographic range
Vaillant's mabuya occurs on the islands Fogo and Santiago, and the islet Ilhéu de Cima.

Habitat
The preferred natural habitat of C. vaillantii is shrubland.

Reproduction
C. vaillantii is viviparous.

Subspecies
Two subspecies are recognized as being valid including the nominotypical subspecies.
 * Chioninia vaillantii vaillantii (Boulenger, 1887)
 * Chioninia vaillantii xanthotis Miralles, Vasconcelos, Perera, Harris & Carranza, 2010

Nota bene: A trinomial authority in parentheses indicates that the subspecies was originally described in a genus other than Chioninia.

Etymology
The specific name, vaillantii, is in honor of French herpetologist Léon Louis Vaillant.