18. PTxis. — 19. noMOPTJs. 145 



Head shielded above. Limbs club-shaped, with blunt claws and 

 large scales. Tail short. 

 Madagascar. 



1. Pyxis arachnoides. 



Pyxis arachnoides, Bell, I. c. pi. xvi. ; Ditm. &,• Bihr. t. c. p. loG, 

 'pi. xiv. iig. 1 ; Gray, Cat. Tort. p. 12, and 8h. Rept. p. 14 ; Sfrauck, 

 Vcrth. Schihlkr. p. 38 (1865) ; Gray, Suppl. p. 13, and Proc. Zool. 

 Soc. 1873, pi. Ix. tig. 7. 



raada^ascanensis, Lesson, Bidl. Sc. Nat. xxv. p. 120 (1831) 



? Testudo planicauda, Grandid. Rev. et May. de Zool. (2) xix. p. 233 



(1807). 



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, tnmcate 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, axiUary 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 10\ centim. 



Madagascar ; Mauritius ? 



a. Ad., skel. ? 



19. HOMOPUS. 



Testudo, part.. Gray, Syn. Rept. p. 8 (1831) ; Stranch, Chdon. Stud. 



p. 20 (1802). 

 Homopus, Dum. ^- Bibr. ii. p. 145 (1835) ; Gray, Cat. Tort. p. 10 



(1844), and Sh. Rejyt. i. p. 11 (1855), and Suppl. p. 13 (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. Tail short, not longer in the young than in the 

 adult. 



South and West Africa. 



