Testudo scripta Thunberg

Rhodin, Anders G. J. & Carr, John L., 2009, A quarter millenium of uses and misuses of the turtle name Testudo scabra: Identification of the type specimens of T. scabra Linnaeus 1758 (= Rhinoclemmys punctularia) and T. scripta Thunberg in Schoepff 1792 (= Trachemys scripta scripta), Zootaxa 2226, pp. 1-18 : 12

Testudo scripta Thunberg in Schoepff 1792

The specimen of “ Testudo scabra Thunberg ” (labeled “ Testudo scripta Thunberg ” on the plate) that Schoepff (1792) used as the basis for the description of Testudo scripta (= Trachemys scripta scripta ) is present in the Thunbergian collection in Uppsala ( Fig. 7 ). It is the only specimen of Testudo scripta in the collection and was accessioned by Thunberg himself, who recorded it in various versions of his museum catalogues. This specimen is the holotype of Trachemys scripta scripta and has never previously been located or identified ( Iverson 1992; Seidel and Ernst 2006). Interestingly, Schweigger (1812:297) later wrote about T. scripta Schoepff : “ Vidi specimen, quo usus Schoepf., in museo Parisiensi ” (I saw the specimen, used by Schoepff, in the Paris Museum), but that was never confirmed, and it is not there (R. Bour, pers. comm.). Instead, it was part of the Thunberg donation to the collections in Uppsala. Since Schweigger visited both collections, he may have meant “ Upsaliensi ” rather than “ Parisiensi.”

The specimen is a small, dried, misshapen hatchling labeled “ Testudo scripta Mus. Thunb. ” by Thunberg himself ( Fig. 7 ) and is the only T. scripta in the entire Linnaean and Thunbergian collections in Uppsala. It measures approximately 31.0 mm straight CL, ca. 30.3 mm PL, and 9.2 mm tympanic head width, and has a trace of its hatchling egg caruncle still visible. It was never given an original accession number, but has now been catalogued as UUZM Types 7455. It was accessioned into the Uppsala collection sometime between 1785 and 1792, but not with the first group of Thunberg specimens in 1785, being added to the catalogue as “ Testudo scripta ” after the initial entries ( Thunberg 1785 –1817, 1808–1815). Aside from entries for this single specimen of T. scripta by Thunberg in various other handwritten museum catalogues, the only actual publication documenting its existence was in Thunberg (1818) where it was listed as being part of the Thunberg donations to the Uppsala collections.

Based on examination of the poorly-preserved holotype and its photos ( Fig. 7 ) and examination of its original figure (Schoepff 1792: pl. 3, f. 4, 5, labeled “ Test. scripta Thunb.”) ( Fig. 4 ), we and other colleagues highly familiar with T. scripta (K. Buhlmann, W. Gibbons, and B. Thomas, pers. comm.) agree that it fortunately appears to represent a Trachemys scripta scripta , but genetic analysis would be helpful to be certain.

Figures

FIGURE 4. Illustration from Schoepff (1792: pl. 3, figs. 4 – 5), showing the holotype of Testudo scripta Thunberg in Schoepff 1792 (also Testudo scabra L. sensu Thunberg in Schoepff) (presently Trachemys scripta scripta). On the plate these figures are labeled “ Test. scripta Thunb. ” and the specimen is clearly a hatchling. The specimen itself was originally catalogued as Testudo scripta by Thunberg sometime between 1785 and 1792 and donated by him to the Uppsala University Museum of Zoology, and it is still there as a badly dried and misshaped specimen now catalogued as UUZM Types 7455 (see Fig. 7).

FIGURE 7. Type specimen (holotype) of Testudo scripta Thunberg in Schoepff 1792, donated by Thunberg between ca. 1785 – 92 to the Uppsala University Museum of Zoology (now catalogued as UUZM Types 7455), dried hatchling, ca. 31 mm straight CL. The original tag by Thunberg reads “ Testudo scripta. Mus. Thunb. ” This specimen represents Trachemys scripta scripta.