Taxonomy
Chinemys reevesii belong to the family Emydidae. This family can be divided
into the subfamilies Emydinae and Batagurinae. Chinemys reevesii belongs to the last one.
There are other species of Chinemys, Chinemys nigricans (or kwangtungensis) and Chinemys megalocephala.
Both are not as common as C.reevesii.
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Chinemys reevesii
Chinesische Dreikielschildkröte, Reeves Turtle, Chinese three keeled turtle
Typical for this species are three keeles or ridges on the shell, running parallel the length
of the carapace. Compared to turtles from North America the shell is not saucer-shaped but more oval, almost
rectangular.
The colour of the shell varies from light brown to black with darker pigment around the keels and sometimes lighter seams. The plastron is either dark brown to black, or yellow with a large brown blotch on each scute. The skin color can range from olive green to dark grey
or black. Head and neck show a series of solid or broken narrow yellow stripes. With darker animals these stripes tend to disappear.
Melanism is quite common in older males. They are 6 to 9 years old when the yellow markings are fading and the body color becomes darker. At the end all exterior parts including the iris are completely black. When our male came to us in May 2000 the melanism was already beginning. The yellow markings where still visible and the iris was yellow. By now the turtle is completely black.
Females grow to 18-25 cm, males to approx. 12 cm. The sex can be determined looking at the tail. The male has a pronounced bulge at the base of its tail because of the drawn-in penis. It has the vent opening about 2/3 from the shell towards
the tip of the tail, and
the tail is noticebly longer than that of a female. The enlarged tail of the male is developed early at carapace length of 60 mm. We could therefore determine that one of our young animals was a male when it was only 1.5 years old.
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There are not many information available about the age C.reevesii can reach in captivity. Two people from Seattle collect
information from all over the world and publish it on their site.
According to this source the oldest C.reevesii died at an age of 24. This is not very much compared
to other turtle species, and of course we hope that our animals will live a lot longer.
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Chinemys nigricans
Chinesische Rothalsschildkröte, Chinese red necked pond turtle
The shell is almost black and only slightly domed with one keel running the length of the carapace.
The colour of the extremities ranges from grey to black. The head features a reddish pattern
C.nigricans comes from South China. Its habitat are rivers in altitudes between 300 to 400 m. [Rogner, Schildkröten 1, 1995].
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Chinemys megalocephala
Chinese Big-headed Pond Turtle
As the name is indicating this turtle has a big head, the width can be up to one half of
the carapace. The skin is olive green. The head is marked with yellow stripes. The shell
is brown with three longitudinal keels.
C. megalocephala inhabits streams in hill regions, and is distributet in Guangxi, Jiangsu and
Hubei provinces in China.
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