Visser et al. (2014) found three major lineages across the species’ distribution with the sister species, B. janetta, regarded as paraphyletic with respect to this species. These lineages pertain to the West Coast, Struisbaai and Sedgefield areas, evidently separated by the Hottentots Holland Mountains and the Breede River, which act as phylogeographic disruptors. Importantly, however, every studied population (10 in total) was genetically unique in both their mitochondrial and nuclear DNA. It therefore seems that populations greater than 30 km apart may be considered as subpopulations due to a lack of gene-flow between them. Additionally, Visser et al. (2014) also found populations to be demographically stable or even expanding, with limited evidence of inbreeding. Within grassland habitats, population densities of this species have been recorded to reach over 300/ha (J.U.M. Jarvis unpubl. data).