Emys orbicularis eiselti Fritz, Baran, Budak & Amthauer, 1998

Aidek, Ahmad E., Saad, Adib, Jablonski, Daniel, Esterbauer, Hans & Fritz, Uwe, 2024, Turtles and tortoises of Syria: Diversity, distribution, and conservation, Zootaxa 5506 (2), pp. 151-193 : 162-163

Emys orbicularis eiselti Fritz, Baran, Budak & Amthauer, 1998

Eiselt’s Pond Turtle ( Fig. 10 )

Provisional Red List Category ( TTWG 2021): Critically Endangered (CR).

Type locality: 14 km NE FevzipaŞa, Vilayet Gaziantep, Türkiye .

Type specimens: Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, NMW18551 :1, holotype; 3 paratypes in the Naturhistorisches Museum Vienna ( NMW 18551 :2), the Zoological Department of the Ege University, Izmir ( ZDEU 40 /1972:1) and the Museum of Zoology, Senckenberg Dresden ( MTD 40468 ) .

Chorotype: Turano-European-Mediterranean.

First record for Syria: Between Al-Kareem and Bab Al-Taqa , collected 25 March 1980 ( Kinzelbach 1988; voucher specimen in the Museum of Zoology, Senckenberg Dresden, MTD 39470 ) .

Recent record: East of Jourin. One individual was found dead east of Jourin near the Orontes River in 1997. The shell was preserved in a large and valuable collection of other specimens and photographs (Aidek collection), but all was lost during the war in Syria.

Distribution in Syria: Very rare. Recorded only in the middle and upper Orontes Basin ( Fig. 11 ).

Remarks: This subspecies was described from Gaziantep Province ( Türkiye), based on only four museum specimens collected at two different sites in 1966 and 1972 ( Fritz et al. 1998). Despite many field surveys from 2001 to 2019 in the Gaziantep region and east of the Amanos Mountains, Türkiye, only 18 specimens were found at the mouth of the Orontes River (Hatay Province, Türkiye; Ayaz et al. 2021). Fieldwork in the Jourin area in Al-Ghab Plain, Syria, in April 2009 failed to find any additional E. o. eiselti, while many Mauremys rivulata were recorded.

Figures

FIGURE 10. Eiselt’s pond turtle, Emys orbicularis eiselti, Antakya, Türkiye (photo: Yusuf Bayrakcı).

FIGURE 11. Records of Emys orbicularis eiselti in Syria. Black circle: vouchered previous record, red circle: new record.