6 
and Trebbau: Aldeia Aragu (not "Araca", 02°35'S 46°05'W), on the 
Igarape Gurupi-Una, and Chatao (02°18'S, 46°21'W) on the Rio Gurupi. 
The Serra do Tiracambu (03°15 / S, 46°30 , W) is an unimportant mesa, 
some 40 km long and 300 m high, not known to play any 
biogeographical role. I do not know that it has ever been explored 
zoologically. 
As to the Serra Dourada, it is 
hard to understand how it ever 
entered the picture. It is some 300 
km north of Anapolis and is not 
known for any biogeographical 
peculiarities. Additionally, 
neither locality has anything to do 
with Amazonia, both being located in 
the heartland of the savanna-like 
cerrados (Ab'Saber, 1977). 
Descalvado (16°43'S, 57°42'W) is 
on the northern reaches of the Mato 
Grosso Pantanal, a seasonally 
flooded complex tectonic depression 
of peculiar ecology (Correia-Filho, 
1946; Schaller, 1983). Nioague 
(21°14 / S, 55°49 / W), the southernmost 
record, is on the southwestern edge 
of the cerrados, approaching the 
southern Pantanal. 
Finally, the citation of Barra 
do Corda, Maranhao, is a mistake. 
The good series (23 specimens) that 
I collected there in 1955 contains 
all G_i. carbonaria . 
Summarizing, I have the impression that Pritchard and Trebbau 
did not actually try to plot their non-Venezuelan localities. If 
they had, the too numerous errors would have become evident and 
would not have been used as support for sweeping statements. As it 
is, the distributional maps and the respective comments contradict 
one another, Pritchard and Trebbau wrongly criticize responsible 
locality records and, most importantly, they fail to emphasize the 
main point in the distribution of the two species. 
This point is that they are not bound to major morphoclimatic 
domains, but that the two tortoises occur in both open and forested 
formations and that there are no other apparent regularities. This 
MAP 2. Distribution of Geochetone denticulata . Base n^>, 
Pritchard and Tretfcau's (198A) figure A0. Localities: 1, 
Descalvado; 2, AnApolis; 3, Noacpe. 
