Letter ear turtles

Letter ear turtles
	North American letter eared turtle
Systematics
without rank:	Sauropsida
Order :	Turtles (Testudinata)
Subordination :	Halsberger tortoises (Cryptodira)
Family :	New World pond turtles (Emydidae)
Subfamily :	Deirochelyinae
Genre :	Letter ear turtles
Scientific name
	Trachemys
	Agassiz , 1857

The letter ear turtles ( Trachemys ) are a genus of turtles from the family of the New World pond turtles . They have an extremely large distribution area, ranging from the Great Lakes in North America to Uruguay. They are also found on some islands in the Bahamas and the Antilles.

Letter ear turtles are closely tied to bodies of water. In addition to animal food, they also consume plant-based food.

Courtship behavior

The courtship behavior of the letter-headed turtles is well known due to their frequent terrarium keeping. The male initially pursues the female in the water, often with a head that is usually far forward. The male's chewing movements are characteristic. In the second phase, the male swims around the female and finally takes a frontal position opposite the female. The snouts of the two sexes almost touch each other. In the case of the North American decorative turtle, the male makes trembling movements with his forelegs in front of the head of the female. In Trachemys taylori these ritualized courtship behavior is absent. The male tries to get the female to copulate with violent bites.

Letter jewelry turtles as terrarium animals

Letter ear turtles are very popular animals for keeping in aquaterrariums . The yellow-cheeked ear turtle and the red- cheeked ear turtle , both of which are subspecies of the North American letter ear turtles, are widespread . They were introduced into many regions of the world by keepers who released the animals. Introduced populations now exist in California , France, South Africa, Bahrain, Japan, South Korea, Guam, and Thailand.

In the USA these turtles are now only allowed to be offered in retail if they have a carapace of at least four inches, around 10 centimeters. This is intended to reduce the “cuteness factor” when buying and to make the buyer aware that these animals need a large aquaterrarium that is expensive to buy. However, US farms are still exporting these turtles in large numbers to Mexico, Japan, and Europe. The respective species and subspecies must be kept separate from each other in order to avoid hybridization.

Species and subspecies

All previously known species and selected subspecies are listed below:

Maranhao eared turtle ( Trachemys adiutrix Vanzolini, 1995)

Chin-patch turtle ( Trachemys callirostris (Gray, 1855))

Hispaniola eared turtle ( Trachemys decorata (Barbour & Carr, 1940))

Cuban eared turtle ( Trachemys decussata (Gray, 1831))

South American eared turtle ( Trachemys dorbigni (Duméril & Bibron, 1835))

Nicaraguan eared turtle ( Trachemys emolli (Legler, 1990))

Mexican eared turtle ( Trachemys gaigeae (Hartweg, 1939))

Gray's eared turtle ( Trachemys grayi (Bocourt, 1868))

Pacific eared turtle ( Trachemys nebulosa (Van Denburgh, 1895))

Nayarit-eared turtle ( Trachemys ornata (Gray, 1831)) (species status unclear)

North American letter ear turtle ( Trachemys scripta , (Schoepff, 1792))

Yellow-cheeked slider turtle ( Trachemys scripta scripta (Schoepff, 1792))
Red- eared slider turtle ( Trachemys scripta elegans (Wied-Neuwied, 1838))

Cumberland ear turtle ( Trachemys scripta troostii (Holbrook, 1836))

Antilles eared turtle ( Trachemys stejnegeri Schmidt, 1928)

Cuatro Ciénegas eared turtle ( Trachemys taylori (Legler, 1960))

Jamaican ear turtle ( Trachemys terrapen (Bonnaterre, 1789))

Central American eared turtle ( Trachemys venusta (Gray, 1855))

Sonoran ear turtle ( Trachemys yaquia (Legler & Webb, 1970))

Trachemys medemi Vargas-Ramírez et al., 2017

literature

Manfred Rogner: Tortoises - biology, keeping, reproduction , Eugen Ulmer KG, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-8001-5440-1

Web links

Commons : Trachemys - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Rogner, pp. 74 and 75
Jump up ↑ University of Michigan page on the North American Letter-eared Tortoise
↑ Mario Vargas-Ramírez, Carlos del Valle, Claudia P. Ceballos, Uwe Fritz : Trachemys medemi n. Sp. from northwestern Colombia turns the biogeography of South American slider turtles Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research, October 2017, doi : 10.1111 / jzs.12179

[1] Rogner, pp. 74 and 75

[2] Jump up ↑ University of Michigan page on the North American Letter-eared Tortoise

[3] Mario Vargas-Ramírez, Carlos del Valle, Claudia P. Ceballos, Uwe Fritz : Trachemys medemi n. Sp. from northwestern Colombia turns the biogeography of South American slider turtles Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research, October 2017, doi : 10.1111 / jzs.12179