This study provides a genetic characterisation of two skink species, Trachylepis striata (Peters 1844) and Trachylepis wahlbergii (Peters 1869), by means of karyology and analysis of the 422-bp sequences of the 16S rRNA mitochondrial gene. The two species have an identical karyotype, 2n = 32, NF = 64; no interspecific differences were found in the relative length of the chromosomes and their centromeric index. However, the karyotype of T. striata is very different from the one previously described for the same species. For the genetic analysis, we used seven specimens collected in seven different localities. The results indicate that the two species cannot be distinguished by the 16S rRNA mitochondrial gene. In fact, the genetic distance within species is very close to that found among species (2.5%). Moreover, the phylograms obtained with NJ and MP fail to support any monophyletic assemblage suggesting that T. striata and T. wahlbergii have diverged very recently. Therefore, the specific rank of these two taxa should be re-evaluated. keywords: 16S rRNA gene, chromosomal evolution, Lygosominae, Mabuya, mtDNA.