Vol. XV, pp. 235-238 December 16, 1902 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



SOME GENERIC NAMES OF TURTLES. 



By LEQNHARD STEJNEGER. 



I. 



Merrem, in 1820, (Tentamen, p, 27) was the first author to 

 give a generic name, viz: Terrapene, to the Emydine turtles 

 with a movable plastron, which some earlier writers, such as 

 Oppel (1811) and Cuvier (181*7), had indicated as a section of 

 the genus Emys. In the genus he included six valid species 

 (his T. boscii being only a synomyne of T. ornata) as follows: 



(1) T. odorata (+ boscii), 



(2) T. pemisyhianica, 



(3) T. ambointnsis, 



(4) 7'. tricarinata, 



(5) T. idgricojis, 

 • (6) T. clausa. 



Two years later Fleming (Philos. Zool. II, p. 270) appar- 

 ently without knowing Merrem's work, gave the name Cistiida 

 to the same group of turtles, without mentioning any species 

 whatsoever. This makes it an unconditional synonym of Ter- 

 rapene, a conclusion quite in consonance with Say's use of 

 Fleming's name in 1825 (Journ. Phila. Acad., IV, ii, p. 205) 

 for the species C. clausa, C. pennsylvanica, and C. odorata. 



In 1824, Spix (Testud. Brasil., p. 17) instituted the genus 

 Kinosternon, thus taking out of Merrem's Terrapene his T. tri- 

 carinata. 



J. E. Gray in a paper entitled "A Synopsis of the Genera of 

 45— Biol. Soc. V^ash. Vol. XV, 1902. (335) 



