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List of reptiles of Lesotho

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 10, 2025
Entity authorityQ6636457 ↗
Source-derived summary

This is a list of the reptile species recorded in Lesotho. There are 17 reptile species in Lesotho, of which 2 are classified as near threatened. This list is derived from the Reptile Database which lists species of reptile and includes those reptiles that have recently been classified as extinct (since 1500 AD). The taxonomy and naming of the individual species is based on those currently used by the Reptile Database as of 22 September 2011 and supplemented by the common names and taxonomy from the IUCN where no Reptile Database article was available.

The following tags are used to highlight species' conservation status as assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature:

Order: Squamata (snakes and lizards)

Family: Gekkonidae (geckos)

Genus: Afroedura

Inland rock gecko (Afroedura karroica)

Drakensberg gecko (Afroedura nivaria)

Family: Cordylidae (spinytail lizards)

Genus: Cordylus

Lang's crag lizard (Cordylus langi)

Drakensberg crag lizard (Cordylus melanotus)

Sub-species Cordylus melanotus subviridis

Family: Lacertidae (true lizards)

Genus: Pedioplanis

Burchell's sand lizard (Pedioplanis burchelli)

Genus: Trachylepis

Montane speckled skink (Trachylepis punctatissima)

Genus: Tropidosaura

Cottrell's mountain lizard (Tropidosaura cottrelli) NT

Essex's mountain lizard (Tropidosaura essexi) NT

Family: Colubridae

Genus: Dasypeltis

Common egg-eater (Dasypeltis scabra)

Family: Lamprophiidae

Genus: Lycodonomorphus

Common brown water snake (Lycodonomorphus rufulus)

Sub-species Lycodonomorphus rufulus mlanjensis

Genus: Montaspis

Cream-spotted mountain snake (Montaspis gilvomaculata)

Genus: Prosymna

Sundevall's shovel-snout (Prosymna sundevalli)

Genus: Psammophylax

Spotted skaapsteker (Psammophylax rhombeatus)

Family: Elapidae

Genus: Hemachatus

Rinkhals (Hemachatus haemachatus)

Genus: Naja

Western barred spitting cobra (Naja nigricincta)

Sub-species Naja nigricincta woodi

Cape cobra (Naja nivea)

Family: Viperidae (adders and vipers)

Genus: Bitis

Mountain adder (Bitis atropos)

References

"Reptiles of Lesotho". Reptile Database. 2011. Retrieved 22 September 2011.

"Conservation Assessment of Reptiles of Lesotho". IUCN. 2011.

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This entry incorporates text from “List of reptiles of Lesotho” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.