SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE TURTLES OF THE GENUS MALA- 
CLEMYS. 
BY 
©. Ps Haw, 
Of the turtles belonging to the genus Malaclemys there are now recog- 
nized five species, two new ones having been described within recent 
years by Dr. G. Baur. The genus is a very distinct one, and is distin- 
guished from Chrysemys especially by the extremely broad and flat erush- 
ing surfaces of both upper and lower jaws. Asa result of the provision 
made for the support of these wide, horny, masticatory plates, the in- 
ternal nares are thrown far back, so as to lie behind the level of the 
eyes. In the Catalogue of the Chelonians in the British Museum, 1589, 
Dr. G. A. Boulenger says that “the plastron is extensively united to 
the carapace by suture, with feeble axillary and inguinal peduncles, 
the latter ankylosed to the fifth costal plate.” Sometime ago I macer- 
ated a large specimen, M. geographica, until the whole plastron fell away 
from the carapace, thus showing that there was no ankylosis of the parts. 
The Map tortoise, M. geographica, was described by the naturalist Le 
Sueur, in the Journal of the Philadelphia Academy for 1817. In the Mé- 
moires du Muséum de Paris for 1827, Le Sueur presented the description 
of another species of this genus from specimens which he had taken in the 
Wabash River, at New Harmony, Ind. Neither figure nor systematic 
name accompanied the description, although he appears to have had a 
name in manuscript, pseudogeographica. It ts evident that Le Sueur 
had in mind the terrapin, which has for the most part gone by that name 
since then, although the description is in some respects erroneous. The 
first mention that I find of this manuscript name of Le Sueur is found in 
connection with the Emys lesueurii, described by Dr J. E. Gray in his 
Synopsis Reptilium, 1831. It is also given by Duméril and Bibron in 
Erpétologie Générale, vol. 11, p. 256, as a synonym of Hmys geographica, 
with the remark, “jeune age.” In his work, Herpetology of North 
America, published in 1842, Dr. Holbrook recognized the fact that this 
terrapin is distinct from the earlier described geographica, and gave to 
it the name that Le Sueur had bestowed on it in his manuscripts. He 
also accompanied the description with a colored plate. It is from this 
date, 1842, that we must reckon in determining the tenability of the 
name pseudogeographica. 
Proceedings National Museum, Vol. X V—No. 908. 
379 
