Ocadia

Ocadia
Chinese Stripe-necked Turtle Ocadia sinensis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Order:	Testudines
Suborder:	Cryptodira
Superfamily:	Testudinoidea
Family:	Geoemydidae
Subfamily:	Batagurinae
Genus:	Ocadia Gray, 1870

Ocadia is a genus of turtle in the family Geoemydidae (formerly called Bataguridae). It is sometimes included in Mauremys.^[1] It contains the following species:

• Chinese Stripe-necked Turtle, Ocadia sinensis

O. sinensis is known to hybridize with most other Geoemydidae.^[2] Hybridization runs rampant in that family; while it is possible that perfectly valid species could arise this way, the other Ocadia are apparently only known from a few specimens each, all of them purchased from a turtle dealer in Hong Kong:

The supposed species "Ocadia glyphistoma", described by Mccord & Iverson in 1994^{[citation needed]} and supposedly from southern Guangxi and northern Vietnam, is a hybrid between a male O. sinensis and a female Vietnamese Pond Turtle (Mauremys annamensis).^[3] This "species" seems to be naturally occurring in Central Vietnam, but is occasionally also bred for the pet trade in southern Chinese turtle farms.^[4]

Philippen's Striped Turtle ("Ocadia philippeni"), described by Mccord & Iverson in 1992^{[citation needed]} and said to occur on Hainan, also proved to be a hybrid, between a male O. sinensis and a female Cuora trifasciata.^[5] It is not proven but likely that this "species" also originates from both the wild and is bred in farms.

Footnotes

1. ^ Honad et al. (2002)^{[citation needed]}, Feldman & Parham (2004)^{[citation needed]}, Spinks et al. (2004)^{[citation needed]}
2. ^ see Vetter & Van Dijk (2006)^{[citation needed]}
3. ^ Spinks et al. (2004)^{[citation needed]}, Stuart & Parham (2006)^{[citation needed]}
4. ^ Blanck et al. (in prep.)^{[citation needed]}
5. ^ Stuart & Parham (2006)^{[citation needed]}

References

• Buskirk, James R.; Parham, James F. & Feldman, Chris R. (2005): On the hybridisation between two distantly related Asian turtles (Testudines: Sacalia × Mauremys). Salamandra 41: 21-26. PDF fulltext
• Parham, James Ford; Simison, W. Brian; Kozak, Kenneth H.; Feldman, Chris R. & Shi, Haitao (2001): New Chinese turtles: endangered or invalid? A reassessment of two species using mitochondrial DNA, allozyme electrophoresis and known-locality specimens. Animal Conservation 4(4): 357–367. HTML abstract Erratum: Animal Conservation 5(1): 86 HTML abstract