ID please on Waterberg reptiles

[Arnout]

Dear all,

Last year I have been working as an International Wildlife manager in South Africa.
I got to see many interesting reptiles while working in the field, but I am not sure on the ID of some of them.
All pictures below were taken in The Waterberg area.

Hopefully you could help me out.


Best regards,

Arnout de Vries

[Westley Price]

There are more than enough people here on the forum who are willing to help. In fact, we enjoy the ID challenges!

Here is a link that shows how to post pictures.

http://www.sareptiles.co.za/forum/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=6508

I look forward to the pics!

[Arnout]

Hereby my attempt to post the pictures.
Hopefully it works out.

Best,

Arnout

[Westley Price]

I don't have my field guide handy, but here goes nothing!

The first lizard looks like Pedioplanis sp. possibly P. lineoocellata. Male judging by the bulge at the base of his tail.

The second lizard is Trachylepis margaritifer.

The last one is Pachydactylus affinis.

Thank you for sharing the pictures!

[Arnout]

Hi Westley,

Thank you for helping me ID these three.
I would like to hear, with certainty, what the ID of the first lizard is.

Could you maybe also tell me, what is exactly the difference between Trachylepis margaritifer and Mabuya quinquetaeniata?
I thought that the skink (second photo) was a rainbow skink...

Looking foreward to your reply.

Kind regards,

Arnout

[Westley Price]

Hi Arno

That is a Rainbow skink. The scientific names have changed so much lately. Trachylepis margaritifer and Mabuya quinquetaeniata are exactly the same thing.

There used to be a subspecies called Mabuya quinquetaeniata margaritifer, but this subspecies is now a full species.

Mabuya does not exist in RSA anymore and has been replaced with Trachylepis. Sorry for the confusion.

Maybe someone else can give you a better ID on the first lizard, but I'm sure I have the genus right, maybe not the species.

[Arnout]

Hi Westley (and others),

I also have some questions about the ID of the following.
Friends of mine found this dead snake near a lodge in the Waterberg region.

Maybe you know what is is.
The snake is rather dusty, so true colouration is hard to see.

Thanks again.

Arnout

[Pythonodipsas]

It looks like a young Mozambique spitting cobra - which are very common in that area.

[Bushviper]

Yeah no doubt about that. Mozambique spitter.

[sega]

Looks like an egg eater to me.

[Arnout]

Thanks for sharing.

I was also thinking of a Naja species, when looking at the head of this snake. The Mozambique spitting cobra is than indeed the most likely, although the snouted cobra was also quite common in our region.
However, it made me doubt because most cobra's (in my idea) are more slender. Especcially juveniles.
This snake was maybe 35 to 40 centimeters.

Best regards,

Arnout