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Trachylepis acutilabris
This is a small and delicate skink, also known as Sharp-lipped Mabuya, well camouflaged one with its brown reddish back, whitish belly, pale lateral stripes and a series of black and white dots forming an additional layers of lateral stripes. It sports short legs and short snout. According to some literature, it also sports a long tail - the one in my pics has it rather short and of different colour - and I was wondering if it is not a new tail growth...
Seen in a habitat characterised as 'thicket' - dry-land broad-leaved forest, trees not exceeding 10m in height, with densely packed branches all tangled together, often impenetrable... and very close to urban setting of Khorixas. I unwillingly flushed it out from its burrow under some dead leaves.
This was definitely a lifer for me - and I really struggled to find the information on it; and it seems a lifer on PN too... ;) Otherwise, this is a common resident locally in Namibia, and, even though not endemic it has a very limited distribution; and is found in Namibia, south of Angola; west of DRC and north-west of South Africa.
Spotted on Feb 20, 2020
Submitted on Mar 9, 2020
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