18. pyxis.—-19. Homopvs. 145 
Head shielded above. Limbs club-shaped, with blunt claws and 
large scales. Tail short. 
Madagascar. 
1. Pyxis arachnoides. 
Pyxis arachnoides, Bell, l.c. pl. xvi.; Dum. & Bibr. t.c. p. 156, 
pl. xiv. fig. 1; Gray, Cat. Tort. p. 12, and Sh. Rept. p. 14; Strauch, 
Verth. Schildkr. p. 38 (1865); Gray, Suppl. p. 13, and Proce. Zool. 
Soc. 1873, pl. lx. fig. 7. 
madagascariensis, Lesson, Bull. Sc. Nat. xxv. p. 120 (1881). 
? Testudo planicauda, Grandid. Rev. et Mag. de Zool, (2) xix. p. 238 
(1867). 
Shell hemispherical, all the shields with strong concentric grooves; 
margin not serrated; nuchal shield present, narrow; vertebral 
shields much broader than long, as broad as the costals. Front 
lobe of plastron narrower than hind lobe, truncate anteriorly, its 
length two thirds the width of the bridge; hind lobe short, openly 
notched posteriorly ; median suture between the gulars, humerals, 
pectorals, and anals equal in length, half as long as that between 
the abdominals ; suture between the femorals very short; inguinal 
large, axillary small. Shell yellow, with broad black bands of 
unequal width radiating from the centre of the dorsal shields; six 
such rays on each vertebral and four or five on each costal. 
Length of shell 104 centim. 
Madagascar ; Mauritius ? 
a. Ad., skel. 
19. HOMOPUS. 
Testudo, part., Gray, Syn. Rept. p. 8 (1831); Strauch, Chelon, Stud. 
p. 20 (1862). 
Homopus, Dum. § Bibr. ii. p. 145 (1835); Gray, Cat. Tort. p. 10 
(1844), and Sh. Rept. i. p. 11 (1855), and Suppl. p. 18 (1870). 
Chersobius, Fitzing. Ann. Wien. Mus. i. p. 112 (1835), 
Neural plates mostly hexagonal, anterior short-sided behind ; 
costal plates alternately narrower and wider; supracaudal shield 
undivided. Plastron extensively united to the carapace by suture, 
with short axillary and inguinal buttresses, which do not reach the 
costal plates ; entoplastron anterior to the humero-pectoral suture. 
Skull with weak bony postorbital and temporal arches; alveolar 
surface without median ridge; beak hooked; choanse between the 
eyes. Head shielded above. Limbs club-shaped, covered with 
large scales. ‘T'ail short, not longer in the young than in the 
adult. 
South and West Africa. 
