297 



Öfversigt af Kongl. Vetenskaps-Akademiens Förhandlingar 1898. N:o 5. 

 Stockholm. 



Notes on the anatomy of a specimen of Dasypus 

 minutus without nuchal plates. 



By Einar Lönnberg. 



(Communicated May 11 1898 by F. A. Smitt). 



Among the collections, recently brought home by Mr. P. 

 DusÉN from Chili is a small armadillo which he has found on 

 the eastern side of lake Nahuel-huapi. It had just been killed 

 with shotgun when Mr. Dusen found it, and as this happened 

 during the winter which these animals usnally pass in their 

 burrows, he could give us no information concerning the habits 

 of the species, which of course would have been very valuable. 

 The animal, which is now kept in the Zool. Museum of the R. 

 University in Upsala, resembles very closely Dasypus minutus 

 Desmarest, but differs from that species in not having any 

 nuchal plates. For this reason I believed, at first, that it was 

 a representative of a new species but not having any material 

 for comparison at my disposition I did not dåre to decide the 

 question myself. I therefore wrote to Mr. Oldfield Thomas 

 sending him a description of the animal. With his usual kind- 

 ness Mr. Oldfield Thomas immediately favored me with a letter 

 expressing his opinion. After having examined the specimens 

 in British Museum and finding them varying with regard to the 

 development of the nuchal ring (»no two specimens being precise- 



