Herping Around Gauteng

[Matt Robinson]

The East Rand has had some good rains lately. These are some of the herps that we have found for the season so far.

Rhombic Egg-eater (Dasypeltis scabra)

This first one had a nice colour to it





Cross-Marked Grass Snake (Psammophis crucifer)



Common Brown Water Snake (Lycodonomorphus rufulus)



Herald Snake (Crotaphopeltis hotamboeia)

It just wouldn't be a day out without finding these



Transvaal Girdled Lizard (Cordylus vittifer)



Rhombic Skaapsteker (Psammophylax rombeatus rombeatus)

These were incredibly common. You can literally find several under one rock.





Wahlberg's Snake-eyed Skink (Afroablepharus wahlbergii)



Black-headed Centipede-eater (Aparallactus capensis)

Wish there were more of these to control the vast amount of centipedes that we saw. (Not a fan of Centipedes)



Thin-tailed Legless Skink (Acontias gracilicauda) ID Confirm please



Have been trying to find the Highveld Garter Snake but no luck yet. Hopefully this season.

[Mitton]

Those are great finds, thanks for posting.

[levi_20]

Really nice finds, I like that first eggy!

[Ruan Stander]

Very nice selection of species. I like the girdled lizard. Has the genus Cordylus not been renamed Smaug ?

[Matt Robinson]

Not all of the Girdled Lizards were moved to a different genus.

Have a look at the paper in the below link named Stanley.pdf. (Page 67 has a schematic showing the relationships)

viewtopic.php?f=81&t=24766&hilit=smaug&start=15

[Ruan Stander]

I see, so am I correct in assuming that it was the creation of a new genus with some species placed in it, rather than a renaming of the entire genus ?

[Westley Price]

Great finds Matt. I have only seen a few A. gracilicauda, but you specimen doesn't look like this species. It actually resembles A. plumbeus more, although I see they're not supposed to occur in Gauteng. But morphologically I recon it is A. plumbeus.

Predator, there were quite a few new genera created that were previously included in Cordylus, and Cordylus also remained.

Here's a screenshot I posted a while back:

From "Between a rock and a hard polytomy: Rapid girdled lizards (Squamata: Cordylidae)" 2011

By Edward L. Stanley, Aaron M. Bauer, Todd R. Jackman, William R. Branch, P. Le Fras N. Mouton

[reptile]

Amazing finds! The Herald looks tiny...

[Fooble]

Nice collection of finds Matt.Thanks for the post.

[Matt Robinson]

Westley, sorry about the very late reply. I sent some photos of the Acontias to JM. He thinks it is A. gracilicauda.

Some finds from a few weeks ago:

Delalande's Sandveld Lizard (Nucras lalandii)



Another Transvaal Girdled Lizard (Cordylus vittifer)