| Diagnosis | Diagnosis (genus, revised fide KELLY et al. 2011): An endemic southern African genus diagnosed by the following combination of characters: body elongated to stocky, and tail moderate to short; head moderate to small and generally rounded, slightly to moderately broader than neck and distinct from it; eye small to moder-ate, with vertically elliptical pupil; midbody scale rows 19–25,vertebral row not enlarged; dorsal scales smooth, generally without apical pits (except in some aurora); ventrals 165–230, without lateral keel; subcaudals paired, 28–74; anal entire; maxilla with six anterior teeth increasing in size to the 6th, followed (sometimes after a short diastema) by 9–13 ungrooved teeth gradually decreasing in size posteriorly; hemipenis variable – unforked (guttatus) or shallowly forked, shaft nude or spinose, with or without basal spines; distally, 6–8 pinnate rows of ossified spines that may be slightly webbed and decrease in size towards organ apex; lobes encircled by 3–4 (fuscus) or 6–8 (aurora) rows of fine spines; sulcus semi-centrifugal, divided (Bogert, 1940; Broadley, 1990; Branch,1998). See Table 4 in KELLY et al. 2011 for additional data. |
| References |
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