The type locality of the Sicilian pond turtle Emys trinacris is here amended, and its correct name and geographical coordinates are provided. The locus typicus of the species lies at 1007 m a.s.l., i.e. nearly 400 m below what previously thought. The updated altitudinal distribution range of the species, based on verified published localities only, is between 0 and 1036 m a.s.l

Arculeo, Marco

Arizza, Vincenzo

Marrone, Federico

Sacco, Francesco

Firenze University Press: E-Journals

Acta Herpetologica 11(1): 59-61, 2016
ISSN 1827-9635 (print) © Firenze University Press 
ISSN 1827-9643 (online) www.fupress.com/ah
DOI: 10.13128/Acta_Herpetol-17873
Amendment of the type locality of the endemic Sicilian pond turtle Emys 
trinacris Fritz et al. 2005, with some notes on the highest altitude reached 
by the species (Testudines, Emydidae)
Federico Marrone*, Francesco Sacco, Vincenzo Arizza, Marco Arculeo
Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Biologiche, Chimiche e Farmaceutiche (STEBICEF), Università di Palermo, Via Archirafi 18, 
90123 Palermo, Italy. *Corresponding author. E-mail: federico.marrone@unipa.it 
Submitted on 2016, 27th January; revised on 2016, 12th February; accepted on 2016, 15th February 
Editor: Sebastiano Salvidio
Abstract. The type locality of the Sicilian pond turtle Emys trinacris is here amended, and its correct name and geo-
graphical coordinates are provided. The locus typicus of the species lies at 1007 m a.s.l., i.e. nearly 400 m below what 
previously thought. The updated altitudinal distribution range of the species, based on verified published localities 
only, is between 0 and 1036 m a.s.l.
Keywords. Altitudinal limit, type locality, Sicily, Emydidae.
The largely Nearctic family Emydidae is represented 
in the Palaearctic region by two species belonging to the 
genus Emys Duméril 1805: the polytypic European pond 
turtle, E. orbicularis (Linnaeus 1758), which is widely 
spread in Eurasia and Maghreb, and the endemic Sicilian 
pond turtle, E. trinacris Fritz et al., 2005 (Stuckas et al., 
2015; Vamberger et al., 2015).
The Sicilian pond turtle was originally described 
based on molecular data only (Fritz et al., 2005), while its 
morphological variability and the possible morphological 
or morphometric differences between E. trinacris and E. 
orbicularis were later investigated by several authors (e.g. 
Fritz et al., 2006; Zuffi et al., 2006; D’Angelo et al., 2008; 
Arizza et al., 2014). Some data on the leech parasites 
occurring on E. trinacris and E. orbicularis are reported 
by Marrone et al. (2006).
The holotype of Emys trinacris is an adult male col-
lected on May 9th 1968 on the Nebrodi mountain range 
(north-eastern Sicily) by E. Kramer and S. Dereani, and 
stored in Museo Zoologico ‘La Specola’, Florence, with 
accession number MZUF11136 (Fritz et al., 2005). In 
the description of the species, the name of the collec-
tion locality has been reported as “Lago Gian Fenaro, 
below the pass of Pizzo Laminaria approximately 1400 
m above sea level” (Fritz et al. 2005). The same locality 
name for this specimen was reported by Turrisi and Vac-
caro (1997), and Di Cerbo (2011), all of them directly or 
indirectly referring to Fritz (1995) or Fritz et al. (2005). 
Conversely, referring to the same specimen stored in ‘La 
Specola’, the locality name was reported as “Gran Ferraro” 
by Zuffi et al. (2006), and the specimen was erroneously 
reported as a female. 
In the light of the unusually high altitude reported 
for the type locality of E. trinacris, and of the lack of oth-
er information about the type locality of this important 
endemic species, we attempted to gather further infor-
mation on the precise location where the holotype was 
collected. We explored the Sicilian toponyms through 
the ‘Portale Cartografico Nazionale” of the Italian ‘Min-
istero dell’ambiente e della tutela del territorio e del mare’ 
(http://www.pcn.minambiente.it/GN/) and through an 
accurate study of  the available cartography focusing on 
60 Federico Marrone et alii
the Monti Nebrodi area, but the toponyms “Gian Fenaro” 
and “Pizzo Laminaria” were not found in the whole Sicil-
ian territory. 
Through the courtesy of dr. Annamaria Nistri, we 
obtained access to the original hand-written label for the 
E. trinacris holotype, and could check for the spelling 
of the locality reported on it. The label reads: “Nel Lago 
Gian Ferraro, sotto il Passo di Pizzo Laminaria (Monti 
Nebrodi; Sicilia) m 1400 s.l.m.” (Fig. 1). In fact, on the 
Nebrodi mountains, few hundreds of metres NW of Piz-
zo Luminaria (coord.: 14.50695 E, 37.95337 N, elevation: 
1260 m a.s.l.), there is a spring (Sorgente Gianferraro, 
coord.: 14.50078 E, 37.95612 N, altitude: 1088 m a.s.l.) 
which feeds a pond. This last pond  does not have a name 
on the official Italian IGM maps, but local shepherds call 
it “Laghetto Gianferraro” (i.e. “Lakelet Gianferraro”). 
We positively think that this pond is the locality 
where the specimen coded MZUF11136 in the collection 
of ‘La Specola’ was collected, furthermore we believe that 
“Pizzo Laminaria” (which does not exist in Sicily) is to be 
considered a misspelling of “Pizzo Luminaria”, and that 
“Lago Gian Ferraro” is a misspelling of “Lago Gianferraro”. 
Accordingly, the erroneous name of the type locality was 
corrected, following Recommendation 74A.2 of the Inter-
national Code on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN, 1999). 
Thus, the amended type locality of Emys trinacris is:
Laghetto Gianferraro 
Coordinates (WGS84, decimal degrees): 14.497241 E, 
37.951625 N
Elevation: 1007 m a.s.l.
This pond occurs within the protected area “Parco 
Regionale dei Nebrodi”, in the Municipality of Caronia 
(Province of Messina), Sicily, Italy. The amended type 
locality for Emys trinacris lies at an altitude of 1007 m 
a.s.l., which is within the known range of the species. In 
fact, although existing literature reports for the species an 
altitudinal distribution range of 0-1200 m a.s.l. (e.g. Tur-
risi, 2008), or 0-1400 m a.s.l., when the altitude reported 
in the label of the specimen MZUF11136 is included (e.g. 
Podloucky, 1997; Turrisi and Vaccaro, 1997, Di Cerbo, 
2010; Mazzotti and Zuffi, 2006), to our knowledge the 
higher occurrence locality for the species published to 
date is the pond Urio Quattrocchi (coord.: 14.395758 E, 
37.901304 N), occurring at 1036 m a.s.l. on the Nebrodi 
mountain range (municipality of Mistretta); the occur-
rence of the species at higher altitudes is to date only 
anecdotal, and the isolate observations of single E. tri-
nacris specimens in the highly popular Lago Maulazzo 
(coord.: 14.672098 E, 37.941825 N, altitude: 1448 m a.s.l.) 
(F.P. Faraone and M. Romano, pers. comm.) are likely to 
Fig. 1. Label of the holotype of Emys trinacris Fritz et al., 2005 
stored in the Museo ‘La Specola’, Florence. Note that the code 
reported on the label is “111136”, while on the specimen the code 
“11136” is reported (cf. Fig. 2B).
Fig. 2. Holotype of Emys trinacris. A: anterior view; B: posterior view. Note the label with the code “11136”.
61Amendment of Emys trinacris type locality
be ascribed to the anthropogenic introduction of observed 
specimens. Accordingly, to date, the updated altitudinal 
distribution range of the species is 0-1036 m a.s.l.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Dr. A. Nistri (Museo ‘La Specola’, Florence) and Dr. 
S. Lo Bianco (University of Palermo, Palermo) are kind-
ly acknowledged for the help they provided in accessing 
and taking pictures of the label of Emys trinacris holo-
type. Prof. U. Fritz (Senckenberg Dresden, Dresden) is 
acknowledged for the stimulating discussion on the topic 
of this note.
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Amendment of the type locality of the endemic Sicilian pond turtle Emys trinacris Fritz et al. 2005, with some notes on the highest altitude reached by the species (Testudines, Emydidae)

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Amendment of the type locality of the endemic Sicilian pond turtle Emys trinacris Fritz et al. 2005, with some notes on the highest altitude reached by the species (Testudines, Emydidae)

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