Pelomedusa subrufa wettsteini Mertens, 1937

Fritz, Uwe, Petzold, Alice, Kehlmaier, Christian, Kindler, Carolin, Campbell, Patrick, Hofmeyr, Margaretha D. & Branch, William R., 2014, Disentangling the Pelomedusa complex using type specimens and historical DNA (Testudines: Pelomedusidae), Zootaxa 3795 (5), pp. 501-522 : 519

Pelomedusa subrufa wettsteini Mertens, 1937

Based on five Malagasy specimens in the collection of the Senckenberg Museum, Mertens (1937: p. 141) described the subspecies Pelomedusa subrufa wettsteini . The holotype (SMF 7958) is an alcohol-preserved male from “Majunga, West-Madagaskar” [Mahajanga, western Madagascar] with a straight carapacial length of 12.26 cm ( Fig. 8 ). The taxon was soon synonymized with the nominotypical subspecies of the helmeted terrapin ( Loveridge 1941: p. 474).

The type specimens were examined for this study, but tissue was not extracted because many DNA sequence data are available for Malagasy Pelomedusa ( Vargas-Ramírez et al. 2010; Wong et al. 2010; Fig. 1 ), which represent lineage VIII sensu Vargas-Ramírez et al. (2010). Thus, Pelomedusa subrufa wettsteini Mertens, 1937 would become a subjective junior synonym of Testudo subrufa Bonnaterre, 1789 , if lineage VIII should be considered taxonomically distinct.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Maximum Likelihood tree for Pelomedusa, based on 1848 bp of mitochondrial DNA (12S, cyt b, ND4+tRNAs), rooted with Pelusios sinuatus. The tree topology completely matches the one inferred by Bayesian analyses. Numbers along nodes indicate bootstrap support and Bayesian posterior probabilities greater than 50 or 0.95, respectively (not shown for some terminal clades with short branches). Sample codes are voucher numbers; see Table S1 for explanation. Name-bearing types (red) and paralectotypes or topotypic samples (blue) highlighted. On the right, mitochondrial lineages of Vargas-Ramírez et al. (2010) indicated. No topotypic material of Pelomedusa galeata orangensis Hewitt, 1935 could be sequenced. However, the lost holotype is thought to come from the vicinity of Kimberley (South Africa) and all South African samples belong to lineage IX, so it can be concluded that Pelomedusa galeata orangensis represents the same lineage. Inset: Helmeted terrapin from the Addo Elephant National Park, South Africa. Photo: M. Gregorič.

FIGURE 8. Dorsal and ventral view of the holotype of Pelomedusa subrufa wettsteini Mertens, 1937 (SMF 7958, adult male, straight carapacial length 12.26 cm). Scale bar, 3 cm. Photos: E. Morawa.