Cordylus niger

Black Girdled Lizard
A Black Girdled Lizard on Table Mountain (with a millipede on its nose).
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Family:	Cordylidae
Genus:	Cordylus
Species:	C. niger
Binomial name
Cordylus niger Smith, 1844

Cordylus niger (the Black Girdled Lizard), is a medium-sized lizard that is restricted to Table Mountain on the Cape Peninsula (although there is a second, isolated population near Langebaan)

Black Girdled Lizards inhabit rocky outcrops on Table Mountain, South Africa. Unlike many other lizard species in the area, these particular Cordylus lizards are not social and are usually seen alone. They are spiny, flat, and pitch black in colour.
Their colour helps these unique lizards to absorb sufficient heat from the sun, in what is one of the darkest, least sunny parts of South Africa. ^[1]

References

1. ^ http://www.tallbo.com/andra_cordylus/cordylus_niger.htm

Further Reading

• Branch, B., 1998. Field Guide to Snakes and other Reptiles of Southern Africa: Ralph Curtis Books Publishing, Sanibel Island, Florida, 399 p.
• Fitzsimons, V. F., 1943. The Lizards of South Africa: Transvaal Museum Memoir, Pretoria.