The species is indigenous to the western coast of South Africa.

[3] The specific name, austeni, is in honour of English topographer Henry Haversham Godwin-Austen.

[4] The natural habitat of P. austeni is coastal dunes and alluvial sands, at elevations up to 600 m (2,000 ft).

[1] It lives in a tiny burrow that it digs in the sand, and it leaves its burrow at night to forage for small insects among the dune vegetation.

[3] P. austeni has a smooth, colourful body with large eyes and conspicuous yellow or white eyelids.