Terrapene maculata Bell, 1825: p. 309

Nowak-Kemp, Małgosia & Fritz, Uwe, 2010, Chelonian type specimens at the Oxford University Museum, Zootaxa 2604 (1), pp. 1-19 : 10

Terrapene maculata Bell, 1825: p. 309

Current name: Terrapene carolina (Linnaeus, 1758)

Syntype or holotype: OUM 8503 ( Bell Collection , Catalogue of Testudinata No. 20c; shell, SCL 12 cm, bears small label with number “93“ and a historical label “TYPE of Terrapene maculata Bell, 1825 “) .

Remarks: Bell (1825b) based his description of Terrapene maculata exclusively on material from his collection (“ Mus . Nost. ” = Museum Nostrum, p. 309–310). It is unclear how many specimens were used for the description. Bell (loc. cit.) distinguished between the three species Terrapene carolina , Terrapene maculata , and Terrapene nebulosa , all actually representing Terrapene carolina . We prefer to treat only OUM 8503 as syntype or holotype of Terrapene maculata , because this specimen bears a historical label specifying its type status, but cannot exclude that any of the other six specimens of Terrapene carolina (OUM 8501-8502, 8504-8505, 8507-8508) in the Bell Collection bears syntype status as well.