Miller Notes on the Naked-tailed Armadillos. 



So far as I know, this completes the published history of the naked- 

 tailed armadillo in Central America. I may add, however, that Mr. Jose" 

 C. Zeledon has recently informed me that the armadillo de zopilote is well 

 known in Costa Rica, where the worthlessness of its flesh for food is every, 

 where recognized. 



I have recently compared the two Central American specimens with 

 one from Santa Marta, Colombia, and two from Matto Grosso, Brazil. 

 The latter prove to be representatives of the submenus Tatoua, while all 

 of the others are referable to Ziphila. The Costa Rican and Honduras 

 specimens are precisely alike in all important characters, but they differ 

 in many details from the Colombian animal, which in all probability is 

 the same as Gray's Zipldla lagubris. While the fact that Gray's type came 

 from Brazil throws some doubt on this determination of the specimen 

 from Colombia, it does not lessen the probability that the Central Ameri 

 can Ziphila is distinct from the one hitherto described. The Central 

 American animal may stand as: 



Tatoua (Ziphila) centralis sp. nov. 



1869. Dasypus gymnurus Frantzius, 

 Wiegmann's Archiv fur 

 Naturgeschichte, XXXV, 

 Bd. I, p. 309 (not Dasypus 

 gymnurus Illiger, 1815). 

 1 895. Xenurus hispidus True, Proc. 

 U. S. National Museum, 

 XVIII, p. 435 (not Dasy 

 pus hispidus Burmeister, 

 1854). 



1897. Xenurus gymnurus Alfaro, 

 Mammiferos de Costa 

 Rica, p. 46. 



1897. Xenurus gymnurus Allen, 

 Bull. Am. Mus.Nat. Hist., 

 IX, p. 43. 



Type, adult 9 (skin and skull), 

 N - Mill :, United States National 

 Museum, collected at Chamelicon, 

 Honduras, January 8, 1891, by 

 Erich Wittkiigel. 



General characters. Smaller than 

 Tatoua (ZiphUa) lugubris (Gray) ; 

 cheeks with fewer scales ; plates 

 in central rings of carapace more 

 numerous (29-31, instead of 27) ; 

 occipital region of skull much less elevated ; zygomata when viewed from 

 above nearly parallel with each other and with main axis of skull; 

 hamular processes of ptrygoids neither thickened nor bent inward at tips. 



FIG. 1. Head from side : upper figure, 

 Tatoua (Tatoua) hispida ; lower figure, T. 

 (Ziphila) centralis (type). % nat. size. 



