Serval by freckle-sized dots. "F. servalina" was first described in 1839 by Irish naturalist William Ogilby from Sierra Leone; in 1867, British zoologist John Edward Gray described "F. herschelii" from an Indian skin, which was probably the same as the servaline cat. In 1907, British zoologist Reginald Innes Pocock commented that the two forms should be considered independent species, but reverted from this in 1917. Eventually, the two forms came to be recognised as the same species. Another form, "F. himalayanus" (Himalayan serval), was described from a skin procured from the Himalayan region; however, Scottish naturalist William Jardine noted in 1843
Serval that no such specimen had been identified by him or his colleagues, and that it differed considerably from the common serval. In 1944, Pocock identified three races of the serval from northern Africa. Three subspecies are recognised as valid since 2017: The phylogenetic relationships of the serval have remained in dispute; in 1997, palaeontologists M. C. McKenna and S. K. Bell classified "Leptailurus" as a subgenus of "Felis", while others like O. R. P. Bininda-Edmonds (of the Technical University of Munich) have grouped it with "Felis", "Lynx" and "Caracal". Studies in the 2000s and the 2010s show that the serval,