We (Mongoose, MV and myself) had a great weekend's herping and got a number of very special species. We spent Friday evening looking for frogs, and Saturday we went after the reptile species. In total, we got 17 species of reptiles on Saturday, of which 5 (inc 2 subspecies) were new for me. These included:
Sceloted mirus - Montane dwarf burrowing skink
Bitis atropos - Berg adder
Bradypodion transvaalense - Transvaal dwarf chameleon
Pseudocordylus melanotus melanotus - Common Crag lizard
Platysaurus intermedius wilhemi - Wilhelm's flat lizard
And then the non-new species:
Chamaeleo dilepis - Flap necked chameleon
Psammophylax rhombeatus - Rhombic skaapsteker
Lycodonoporphus rufulus - Brown Water Snake (my first live one from the ex-Transvaal provinces)
Cordylus vittifer - Transvaal Girdle lizard
Lygodactylus ocellatus - Spotted Dwarf Gecko
Panaspis wahlbergii - Wahlberg's Snake-eyed skink
Trachylepis varia - Variable skink
Trachylepis punctatissima - Montane speckled skink
Gherrosaurus flavigularis - Yellow-throated plated lizard
Psammophis brevirostris - Short snouted grass snake DOR
Dasypeltis scabra - Rhombic egg-eater DOR
Lamprophis capensis - BHS DOR
And as always, all of the photos were taken in the field and the animals were left where they belong!
Hadromorphryne natalensis - Cascade frog or something like that (ex-Natal ghost frog)
Bitis atropos
Bradypodion transvaalense
Chamaeleo dilepis
Lycodonomorphus rufulus