518 



BULLETIN 58, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



specimens, declared them to be identical, and in default of material I 

 accept their decision. In that case, the Japanese form must be 

 regarded as distinct. On the other hand, I must call attention to a 

 point which later may have a bearins; upon these questions. Doctor 

 lSie])enrock, in a very interesting paper on the S3^stematic arrange- 

 ment of the Tnonychidse" figures the plastral arrangement of a Tri- 

 onyx slnensifi (p. <'^21), which shows a very short plastron, especially 

 the posterior lobe, and he calls particular attention to this feature as 

 characteristic of T. sinensis (p. 822). The figure (see fig. 401) and 



description fit exactly my 

 Japanese specimens, but 

 unfortunately Doctor Sie- 

 benrock does not give the 

 localit}" of the specimen fig- 

 ured. Now, on the other 

 hand, compare the plastron 

 of the specimens figured 

 l)y Gra}'.'' It is an exact 

 counterpart of m}" For- 

 mosan male (No. 34054) in 

 every respect, even to the 

 close approximation of the 

 epiplastra. It is not easy 

 to believe that Gray's and 

 Siebenrock's figures repre- 

 sent the same species. 



However, with no cer- 

 tainty as to the exact local- 

 ity of the specimens fig- 

 ured, it is idle to speculate 

 upon the status of the soft-shelled turtles in Cliina, though it would 

 not be surprising if each of the tlu"ee mam river s^-stems of that 

 empire had its own form. This view is strengthened by sonie 

 remarks by Doctor Schnee"^ to the effect that it is possible to dis- 

 tinguish between a northern and a southern t}"pe, the latter being 

 much darker in China and with more strongly developed tubercles 

 than the former, peculiarities wliich he verified on large series of living 

 specimens in Canton and Shanghai.'^ 



Doctor Schnee in the same article (p. 207) has a note which will 



«Zur Systematikder Schildkxotenfamilie Trionychidse Bell, nebst der Beschreibung 

 einer neuen Cyclanorbis-Art, von Friedrich Siebenrock, in Sitz. Ber. Akad. Wiss. 

 Wien, Math.-Natiirw. CI., XCI, Pt. 1, Oct. 1902, pp. 807-846. 



&Cat. Shield. Rep,t. Brit. Miis., 1855, pi. xxxi. 



cZeitschr. Naturwiss., LXXII, 1899, pp. 203-204. 



d Thi.s difference in color may be due to the character of the rivers and lakes, as 

 already suggested by Heude (M6m. sur les Trionyx, p. 1) 



Fig. 401.— Elements of the trionycuid plastron, 



SHOWING plastral CALLOSITIES. § X NAT. SIZE. (FROM 

 SlEBENROCK.) C. COMMISSURE: ep. entoplastron; cpp. 

 epiplastron; lip. htoplastron: hyp. hypoplastron: 



pa. ANTERIOR MEDIAN PROCESS; pjn. MEDIAN PROCESS; 

 pp. POSTERIOR MEDIAN PROCESS; xp. XIPHIPLASTRON. 



