The Australian scincid genus Lerista comprises more than 80 species of small semifossorial and fossorial lizards. Most species are found in arid and semiarid regions. These species are divided into species groups which are largely diagnosed by their digital formulae. Most L. muelleri species group members have a digital formula of three fingers and three toes, some four fingers and four toes. Only one species has two fingers and three toes. Hitherto L. muelleri has been considered a single

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... ntinental species which, together with L. aIlochira and L. ham/di, comprised the relatively small L. muelleri species group within the speciose genus Lerista. A detailed examination of morphological and genetic variation in Western Australian specimens has indicated that species-level diversity within the L. muelleri species group has been greatly underestimated. Here, 13 species are recognised: the previously described L. allochira (Kendrick 1989), L. hamldi (Storr 1983), L. muelleri (Fischer 1881) and L. rhodonoides (Lucas and Frost 1896; resurrected from the synonymy of L. muelleri) plus nine new species: L.