Transvaal girdled lizard
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SVL 70-85 mm, max SVL 95 mm
This small girdled lizard with a very flattened body and triangular head with rough head shields.The first rows of dorsal is elongated. The nasals are in contact, separating the rostral and the frontonasal. There are six occipitals. The dorsal scales are small and strongly keeled, in 24-26 transverse and 18-25 longitudinal rows. The laterals are spiny. The ventrals are smooth, in 16-18 rows (but 14-16 in some populations). There is a pair of enlarged preanal plates. Usually, both sexes have 6-8 femoral pores on each thigh, but these are fewer, and sometimes absend, in females of some populations. The tail has whorls of very large spines. The back is either uniform straw-coloured, yellow-brown to dark brown, or has irregular, darker spots that are sometimes arranged to form dorsolateral bands. A pale cream-white vertabral stripe is often present. The flanks are orange-brown. The head has a few scattered, yellow spots. The belly is dirty white to light brown. An isolated population in extreme NE Free State, with a prominent dark lateral band and glandular scales on the thighs in females (max SVL 77mm), may represent a distinct species. Biology and breeding : Lives in cracks in small rock outcrops, feeding on beetles, grasshoppers etc. One to four young, 65-75 mm TL, born in early summer. Habitat : Rock outcrops in grassland. Range : Gauteng and adjacent Mpumalanga, N.Free State, SE Botswana, Swaziland, and Kwa-Zulu-Natal; one record from Moazambique. Subspecies : None recognized.