TESTUDO VERROXII.
posteriorly pointed; upper aspect convex, under slightly arched towards the
sides, flat in the middle ; upper surface somewhat irregular, owing to the
slight gibbosity of each plate ; areolw nearly flat; surface of plates marked
with polygonal grooves; marginal plates more inclined to a horizontal direction
than the costal ones, by which inclination an obtuse angle is formed by
the two, and an appearance produced as if the first-named formed a sort of
edging or cornice to the latter. First dorsal plate five-sided, anteriorly
pointed ; second, indistinctly seven-sided; third, fourth, and fifth, six-sided,
the length of the sides in each plate different; first costal plate six-sided, the
remainder irregularly five-sided; second marginal plate somewhat triangular,
the remainder more or less quadrangular; nuchal plate short, rather
broad, anteriorly emarginate, superiorly grooved along the centre, the sides,
transversely ribbed. Shell below bifid anteriorly and posteriorly; gular
plates sub-triangular; humeral, abdominal, and anal ones nearly square;
pectoral and femoral ones- quadrangular, the outer sides much wider than
the inner ones. Upper mandible slightly hooked at the point, and its cutting
edges finely dentated; lower with the point curved upwards. Head and
neck covered with small scales;. fore-legs anteriorly coated with large fiat
imbricate pear-shaped scales, elsewhere by irregularly shaped smaller ones ;
hinder legs and tail covered with small scales, and at the base of the latter,
near the outer and hinder angle of each anal plate, there are two pointed
horny tubercles, one behind the other. Claws short, straight, pointed, and
slightly depressed.
DIMENSIONS.
Inches. Lines. Length of the shell above ............. 3 g
below .............. 3 4
Inches. Lines. Breadth of the shell across the abdominal
plates .......... ................... 3 0
Height of the shell..................... . 2 4
Nothing is known of the female.
T he position of the marginal in relation to the costal plates furnish us with a character by
which this species is at once to be distinguished from Testudo geometrica and T. semiserrata.
From Testudo tentoria, Bell, which has also the marginal plates disposed at an angle with the
costal ones, it is to be distinguished by the greater flatness of its dorsal and costal plates, the
greater size and different characters of its nuchal plate, by the figure of the shell, which in
T. tentoria is oval, by the thinness of the large scales of the fore-legs, and other less conspicuous
peculiarities.
Inhabits the districts of bouth Africa, near the sources of the Garriep or Orange River.