TESTUDINES

Rivas, Gilson A., Molina, César R., Ugueto, Gabriel N., Barros, Tito R., Barrio-Amorós, César L. & Kok, Philippe J. R., 2012, 3211, Zootaxa 3211, pp. 1-64 : 34

Order TESTUDINES

Batrachemys nasuta . — The species has been cited from Venezuela, but there is no Venezuelan voucher specimen of this taxon. The Batrachemys nasuta specimens mentioned in Pritchard and Trebbau (1984) were captive animals without proper locality of occurrence. Bour and Pauler (1987) and McCord et al. (2001) do not list this species as part of the Venezuelan turtle fauna. Barrio-Amorós and Narbaiza (2008) made similar comments on this case.

Podocnemis lewyana . —This species was reported from Venezuela based on a single specimen found in a bend of the Tarra River, south of Maracaibo Lake, near the town of Casigua ( Pauler & Trebbau 1995). Podocnemis lewyana is endemic to the Magdalena River, Colombia, with populations decreasing due to poaching. Three of us (GR, TB & CBA) conducted field studies on Chelus fimbriatus in the Maracaibo Lake Basin ( Rivas et al. 2007) and interviewed the farmer who caught the original specimen behind his house along the Tarra River. That river is often used by Colombians to bring food supplies and they might very well bring turtles as well. It was the first and only occasion the farmer saw such a turtle and interviews with other local people show no familiarity with P. lewyana . No additional specimen has ever been reported, and apparently no population established successfully in Venezuela, therefore we do not consider the species as part of the herpetofauna of Venezuela.