Rocconi, Anthony

Tumlison, C. Renn

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Journal of the Arkansas Academy of ScienceVolume 54 Article 322000Occurrence of a Second Subspecies of Box Turtle(Terrapene carolina), in ArkansasC. Renn TumlisonHenderson State UniversityAnthony RocconiMississippi State UniversityFollow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaasPart of the Zoology CommonsThis article is available for use under the Creative Commons license: Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0). Users are able toread, download, copy, print, distribute, search, link to the full texts of these articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking priorpermission from the publisher or the author.This General Note is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of the ArkansasAcademy of Science by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact scholar@uark.edu.Recommended CitationTumlison, C. Renn and Rocconi, Anthony (2000) "Occurrence of a Second Subspecies of Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina), inArkansas," Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science: Vol. 54 , Article 32.Available at: http://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol54/iss1/32I159Occurrence of a Second Subspecies of Box TVirtle {Terrapene Carolina)in ArkansasRenn TumlisonDepartment of BiologyHenderson State UniversityArkadelphia, AR 71999Anthony RocconiDepartment of Veterinary MedicineMississippi State UniversityMississippi State, MS 39762*Corresponding AuthorThe three-toed box turtle {Terrapene Carolina triunguis} isle subspecies generally accepted to occur west of theVlississippi River with a southeastern extension of the rangeast of the river into Mississippi and southern AlabamaConant and Collins, 1998). The reported range of the east-rn box turtle {Terrapene Carolina Carolina) extends westwardnto northeastern Mississippi and throughout most ofennessee, but approaches Arkansas only in the northeast inle vicinity of Mississippi County (Conant and Collins,998). Carr (1952) indicated a zone of intergradation>etween these subspecies in western Tennessee and easternvlississippi, but Conant and Collins (1998) indicated noone of intergradation except with other subspecies in thextreme southeastern United States. A comprehensivexamination of the distribution and taxonomy of box turtlesn Arkansas is lacking at this time. The purpose of this>aper is to document the discovery of a new subspecies forArkansas.Although the name T. c. triunguis implies three toes (onle hind foot), a few specimens are known to possess fouroes. There is a tendency for the pattern of yellow spots onle carapace of the three-toed box turtle to be replaced byn even olive tohorn color inadult specimens. The plastrongenerally is yellowish to horn colored with some dark mark-ngs evident in some specimens. Males have little to no con-avity in the plaston. In contrast, T. c. Carolina tends to retainpattern of yellow spots on the carapace, often has a dark)lastron, and has four toes. The rear lobe of the plastron ofmales has a distinct concavity (Carr, 1952; Conant andCollins, 1998).On 26 April 1998, three specimens of box turtles, eachfwhich possessed four toes, were collected at separate loca-ons in southeastern Arkansas (Chicot County: Island 82,T14S R1W; Drew County: 2 mi.E Collins onHwy 35, S32T13S R4W; 4 mi. WMonticello on Hwy4, S30 T12S R7W).lie rear lobe of the plastron was concave on a male, andle plastrons were dark on the specimens. These traits areonsistent with the appearance of the eastern box turtle andatypical for the three-toed box turtle. The color pattern ofthe carapace was unusual for T. c. triunguis, having broad yel-low blotches rather than narrow dashes or radiating lines(Fig. 1). However, this coloration is very similar to the pat-tern for Tc. Carolina illustrated in various books (Carr, 1952;Ditmars, 1953; Martof et al., 1980; Ernst et al., 1994; Palmerand Braswell, 1995).The new specimens from Chicot and Drew countieswere appreciably larger than most three-toed box turtles inArkansas, with an average carapace length of 149 mm(range 147-151) for the two specimens available for mea-surement. Carapace length averaged 114.3 mm (range 94-130) for a sample of 24 adult box turtles in the HendersonState University collection, which were obtained in 11Fig. 1. A sample of sizes and patterns of adult box turtlesfrom Arkansas, from the Henderson State University collec-tion of vertebrates. Top row and two specimens on left ofbottom row represent Terrapene Carolina triunguis. Two speci-ments onright of bottom row represent T. c. Carolina.Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol.54, 2000159Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 54 [2000], Art. 32Published by Arkansas Academy of Science, 2000160Arkansas counties (Ashley, Baxter, Clark, Dallas, Drew,Franklin, Garland, HotSpring, Perry, Pike, Nevada). Ofthissample, only one specimen had four toes on the hind foot(and ithad been retained for that fact).Carapace length for specimens of T. c. triunguis inKansas normally range between 113-150 mm (Collins,1993), and maximum lengths of 165 mm have been report-ed in Alabama (Mount, 1975) and Louisiana (Dundee andRossman, 1989). Maximum carapace lengths of T. c. Caroli-na have been given as 151 mm inIllinois (Smith, 1961), 165mm in Alabama (Mount, 1975), and 156 mm in Virginia(Mitchell, 1994). Palmer and Braswell (1995) reportedlengths of the 10 largest specimens (five of each sex, thelargest being 152 mm) from North Carolina, which averaged146.0 mm. Of these previous works, only Mitchell (1994)provided means for samples with males averaging 132.4mm and females 130.1 mm. These values still are higherthan the mean of 114.3 mm reported herein for Arkansas.However, the unusual specimens reported here are closer tothese sizes, and are 35 mmlonger than the average length ofspecimens measured from Arkansas reported herein.The Gulf Coast box turtle, Terrapene Carolina major, alsohas traits in common with the new Arkansas specimens: aconcavity in the plastron and four toes on the hind foot.However, it contrasts by being considerably larger (cara-pace length up to 216 mm), having the pattern of adultsalmost obliterated, and having a flare to the posterior mar-ginals that may produce an almost "gutter-like" appearance(Dundee and Rossman, 1989; Ernst et al., 1994; Conant andCollins, 1998).Two of the new specimens have been examined also byDr. S. Trauth at Arkansas State University. Based on hisconfirmation of the identification and data provided hereinwe conclude that the eastern box turtle, T. c. Carolina, occursinparts of southeastern Arkansas. This is based on the factthat three specimens were taken at separate locations andthat all traits examined are consistent with the eastern sub-species. Normal three-toed box turtles occur sympatricallyin the area. Whether our specimens may be hybrids isunclear, but no traits appeared tobe intermediate to supportthat hypothesis. Dundee and Rossman (1989) noted thatintermediates between T. c. triunguis and T. c. major seldomare seen because the two forms seem to be ecologically seg-regated.Literature CitedCarr, A. 1952. Handbook of turtles. Comstock Publishing,Ithaca, NY. 542pp.Conant, R. and J. T. Collins. 1998. Afield guide to rep-tiles and amphibians, eastern and central NorthAmerica, 3rc*ed. Houghton MifflinCo., Boston, MA.616 pp.Collins,J. T. 1993. Amphibians and reptiles inKansas, 3med. University of Kansas, Museum of Natural HistoryPublic Education Series 13:1-397.Ditmars, R. L. 1953. The reptiles of North America.Doubleday and Co., Garden City,NY. 476 pp.Dundee, H. A.and D.A.Rossman. 1989. The amphib-ians and reptiles of Louisiana. Louisiana StateUniversity Press, Baton Rouge, LA 300 pp.Ernst, C. H., J. E. Lovich, and R. W. Barbour. 1994.Turtles of the United States and Canada. SmithsonianInstitution Press, Washington, D.C. 578 pp.Martof, B. S., W. M. Palmer, J. R. Bailey, and J. R.Harrison III. 1980. Amphibians and reptiles of theCarolinas and Virginia. The University of NorthCarolina Press, Chapel Hill. 264 pp.Mitchell,J. C. 1994. The reptiles ofVirginia. SmithsonianInstitution Press, Washington, D.C. 352 pp.Mount, R. H. 1975. The reptiles and amphibians ofAlabama. Auburn University Agricultural ExperimentStation. 347 pp.Palmer, W. M. and A. L. Braswell. 1995. Reptiles ofNorth Carolina. The University of North CarolinaPress, Chapel Hill,NC. 412 pp.Smith, P. W. 1961. The amphibians and reptiles ofIllinois.Illinois Natural History Survey Bulletin 28:1-298.Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 54, 2000160Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 54 [2000], Art. 32http://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol54/iss1/32

Occurrence of a Second Subspecies of Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina), in Arkansas

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Occurrence of a Second Subspecies of Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina), in Arkansas

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