Diagnosis | Description. (80 specimens examined) Nostril pierced between 2 nasals; preocular 1, widely separated from frontal; postoculars 2 (very rarely 3); temporals basically 2+2+3, but with frequent fusions; supralabials 8 (rarely 7 or 9), the fourth & fifth (rarely third & fourth or fifth & sixth) entering orbit; infralabials 9 (rarely 10), the first 4 (rarely ) in contact with anterior sublinguals; dorsal scales in 1-1-13 rows; ventrals 134-16; cloacal shield divided; subcaudals 68-91. TM 22369, an aberrant female from the Nyanga highlands, Zimbabwe, has only 117 ventrals and 47 subcaudals. Head grey, with a dark red-brown black-edged stripe extending from the snout, dividing on the frontal and again on the parietals, in each case enclosing a grey centre, continuing on the body as a black-bordered three scale wide dorsal stripe, this is separated by a thin white line from a grey dorsolateral stripe on scale rows 4, and 6. A dark grey-brown lateral stripe covers scale rows 2 and 3 and the upper half of the outer row, the lower half being white. Pre- and post-oculars white, supralabials, chin and throat white, blotched or speckled with black. Venter orange with a broken black lateral line. South African specimens usually have one or two dark crossbars intersecting the vertebral stripe on the nape to form the “cross” from which the species derives its name, these crossbars are missing in specimens from Zimbabwe and KwaZulu-Natal. Some South African specimens are uniform grey above and pinkish white below [from BROADLEY 2002]. |
References |
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