[2][3] The common and adaptable species occurs in a variety of habitat types at middle to high altitudes.

[2] It was for a time treated as a southern race of the African striped skink, T.

It is native to eastern Zambia, southern Malawi and Botswana, eastern Zimbabwe, central and northern South Africa, Lesotho and western Eswatini.

The population on Mount Mulanje in southern Malawi was formerly included with Mabuya striata subsp.

punctatissima, but is now treated as a full species, Trachylepis mlanjensis, while the Eastern Highlands population in Zimbabwe may similarly prove to be distinct.