REMARKABLE TORTOISE, TESTUDO LOVERIDGII. 



513 



entoplastron. Hypo- and xiphiplastrons narrow and in sutural 

 contact, forming a narrow, bon)'' band running obliquely across 

 the hind lobe. The xiphiplastrons, however, do not meet each 

 other. 



In the 60 mm. specimen {vide text-fig. 20) the median fenestra 

 is much broader in proportion than in the adult, reaching almost 

 from edge to edge of the plastron. Marginal plates five, six, and 

 seven, which in the adult are produced inwards for a considerable 

 distance, only overlap the line of their corresponding epidermal 

 shields to a small extent, and are about equal, not graduated 

 in depth as in the adult (vide text-figs. 12 & 20). The epi- 

 j^lastrons are more or less pentagonal and not well developed 

 posteriorly at their outer corners, but are in contact with the 



Text-fio'ure 20. 



Plastron of j'oung specimen, 60 mm. in lengtli, fi-om within (nat. size). 



hyoplastrons and the entoplastron. Hyoplasfcrons narrow and 

 not in contact with the entoplastron, or with the fifth marginal 

 plates, with which in adults they form long oblique sutures. 

 Hypoplastrons slender, widely separated from each other, and 

 only narrowly in contact with the sixth marginal plate ; they 

 form short sutures with the equally slender xiphiplastrons. 



Further development takes place principally on the inner 

 borders of the plastral plates until the central fenestra has 

 assumed the regular diamond-shaped form of the adult in this 

 species (compare text-figs. 19, 20, and 12). 



