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Emys vulgaris japonica Temminck & Schlegel, 1834
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Fig. 6. Mauremys japonica, RMNH.RENA 3331, alcohol preserved syntype of Emys vulgaris japonicus. |
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Fig. 7. Mauremys japonica, RMNH.RENA 3333, alcohol preserved syntypes of Emys vulgaris japonicus in their original storage bottle. |
[Emys vulgaris] variété japonaise Temminck & Schlegel, 1834: 54.
Emys vulgaris, variété du Japon Temminck & Schlegel, 1834: 77.
* Emys vulgaris japonica Temminck & Schlegel, 1834: 139.
Emys palustris var. Japon Temminck & Schlegel, 1834: pl. 8 figs 1-4; pl. 9.
Emys vulgaris japonica; Schlegel, 1844: 126, pl. 41.
Emys Japonica; Gray, 1844:19; Gray, 1873: 34.
Mauremys japonica; King & Burke, 1989: 42.
Syntypes: RMNH.RENA 3331, 1 ex. (alc.). Loc.: ‘Japan’. Leg.: Ph.F. von Siebold; RMNH.RENA 3332, 1 ex. (alc.). Loc.: ‘Japan’. Leg.: Ph.F. von Siebold; RMNH.RENA 3333, 2 hatchlings (alc.). Loc.: ‘Japan’ Leg.: Ph.F. von Siebold; RMNH.RENA 3334, 1 juv. (alc.). Loc.: ‘Japan’. Leg.: Ph.F. von Siebold; RMNH.RENA 6142, 1 mounted ex. Loc.: ‘Japan’. Leg. Ph.F. von Siebold.
Current name: Mauremys japonica (Temminck & Schlegel, 1834).
Remarks.― There is some confusion about the exact year of publication of the part Chelonia of the Fauna Japonica. Wermuth & Mertens (1961) mention 1833, Fritz & Havaš (2007) mention 1835. According to Stejneger (1907: 542-543), the volume Reptilia from the Fauna Japonica was issued in different parts. Chelonii (pp. 1-80, pls. 1-9) according to him appeared in 1835. Sherborn & Jentink (1895: 149) and Holthuis & Sakai (1970:75, based on Dutch government archives), however, give 1834 as publication date for this section. We here accept 1834 as publication date for the chelonian part of the Fauna Japonica.
The name on the original plates is erroneously ‘Emys palustris Var. Japon.’. Temminck & Schlegel (1834) acknowledge the mistake in footnote 7 (p. 52): ‘Cette espèce portée par méprise sur notre planche sous le nom d’Emys palustris’ [= Due to a mistake, on our plate this species is mentioned under the name Emys palustris].
Schlegel (1844) mentions the type specimens and says that between 1833 and the moment of writing the RMNH had received from Mr. Bürger drawings of an adult and juvenile specimen made after life in Japan [by the Japanese artist Kawahara Keiga (also called Tojosk by Von Siebold and Bürger)]. Thus it is clear that the specimens depicted on pl. 41 (Schlegel, 1844) are not drawings of any type specimens, and indeed they do not agree with any of the RMNH types listed above.
RMNH.RENA 3331 has the hand of the right forelimb mutilated into a clubfoot with three low pyramids of muscular tissue covered by skin. One of the pyramids has a stump of nail, the others not.
RMNH.RENA 3333 contains two hatchlings, of which the lower one in the bottle (the one without a floating glass bulb) has been depicted on pl. 8 fig. 1 (Temminck & Schlegel, 1834).
Gray (1844; 1873) reports an adult and a half-grown specimen in the collection of the British Museum (Natural History) that were received from the Leiden museum. These specimens might have formed part of the type series.
King & Burke (1989) mention RMNH.RENA 3330 and MNHNP 1954 as syntypes of Emys vulgaris japonica, but this is incorrect, as these three specimens are syntypes of Emys vulgaris picta = Chinemys reevesii (see below).
Pictures.― Temminck & Schlegel (1834: pl.8, fig.1 (RMNH.RENA 3333), fig. 2 and 3 (RMNH.RENA 3334), fig. 4 (RMNH.RENA ??), pl. 9 (RMNH.RENA 3332); Schlegel (1844: pl. 41).