MONOPELTIS CAPENSIS. 
quadrangular compartments in consequence of these being intersected by 
numerous narrow sulci; the number of these compartments in the specimens 
I possess vary from 32 to 34, and the two on the centre of the belly, parti- 
cularly towards the head, are considerably the largest. Each of the rings ol the 
body is divided into four portions, the under or abdominal much the longest, 
being nearly equal in length to the other three ; the extremities of each portion 
are oblique, and at the points of contact the apex of one division extends 
more or less beyond the other. The rings of the tail are entire. The rings 
of the body 207, of the tail 7, those of the latter the widest. Preanal shield 
large, transversely ovate, and slightly divided into six compartments, the two 
middle ones much the largest, the outermost of each side very small ; the extre- 
mity of the tail coated with a large convex sheath of the same material as the 
rings Length from the nose to the anus 9 inches, length of the tail 5 lines. 
Although I have put this species forward as the type of a group, I doubt if more extended 
observation will justify the proceeding. It may prove to be only a very aberrant species of 
Lepidosternon, and if so, Coleopeltis Cuvierii, Muller,* will be a species of the same group, only 
a degree less removed from the typical form. The most marked differences between the 
species in question and Lepidosternon macrocephalurn, Wag., the type of the group, consist in 
the covering of the head ; in the latter that is formed of many plates, in Coleopeltis of two only, 
and in Monopeltis of one. Considering the circumstances of the two last, and that they are 
in most other respects very similar to the typical species, I am disposed to believe others will 
be discovered with fewer plates than Lepidosternon macrocephalurn, and with more than the 
others, and so fill up a gap, the existence of which at present creates a doubt as to the identity 
of form. 
The two specimens I possess were found under a large stone in latitude 24° south, and on 
being uncovered rolled themselves into a globular mass. 
Zeitsh fur Physiol, von F. Tiedem und Trevir , tom. iv. p. 256, tab. 22, fig. 5, a , h, c. 
