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Nilssonia leithii (GRAY, 1872)

IUCN Red List - Nilssonia leithii - Vulnerable, VU
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Higher TaxaTrionychidae (Trionychinae), Trionychoidea, Testudines (turtles)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Nagpur Soft-shelled Turtle 
SynonymTrionyx leithii GRAY 1872
Trionys javanicus GRAY 1831: 19/48 (partim)
Potamochelys stellatus GRAY 1864: 85
Aspilus gataghol GRAY 1872: 330
Isola leithii — BAUR 1893
Trionyx sulcifrons ANNANDALE 1915
Trionyx leithii — ALDERTON 1988
Aspideretes leithii — ERNST & BARBOUR 1989: 107
Aspideretes leithii — GEMEL & PRASCHAG 2003
Aspideretes leithii — BONIN et al 2006
Nilssonia leithii — PRASCHAG et al. 2007
Aspideretes leithii — FRITZ & HAVAŠ 2007
Aspideretes leithii — VYAS 2007
Aspideretes leithii — MURTHY 2010: 24
Nilssonia leithii — LIEBING et al. 2012
Nilssonia leithii — TTWG 2014: 417
Nilssonia leithii — TTWG 2021 
DistributionIndia (in the Bhavani, Godaveri, and Moyer rivers, Kerala; Karnataka)

Type locality: "Poonah," India.  
Reproductionoviparous. 
TypesSyntypes: BMNH 1947.3.4.15 and 1947.3.6.7. 
DiagnosisAdditional details, e.g. a detailed description or comparisons (1873 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentSynonymy: For a more complete synonymy see GEMEL & PRASCHAG (2003).

According to the molecular data of Engstrom et al. (2004) Aspideretes should be renamed Nillsonia as Nilssonia (GRAY 1872) has priority over Aspideretes (HAY 1903).

Distribution: Nilssonia leithii was historically reported from Tapi river, South Gujarat (Bhatt, 1989; Frazier and Das, 1994). However, this species hasn't been reported since then, and vouchers would be needed to confirm their continued existence in the state, hence Patel & Vyas 2019 exclude N. leithii from their list of Gujarati reptiles.

Habitat: freshwater (rivers and tributaries, lakes) 
EtymologyNamed after Dr. Andrew H. Leith, a physician employed in Bombay as Sanitary Commissioner. 
References
  • Alderton, D. 1988. Turtles and tortoises of the world. Facts on File, New York.
  • Baur, G. 1893. Notes on the classification and taxonomy of the Testudinata. Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. 31: 210-225 - get paper here
  • Beolens, Bo; Michael Watkins, and Michael Grayson 2011. The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, USA - get paper here
  • Bonin, F., Devaux, B. & Dupré, A. 2006. Turtles of the World. English translation by P.C.H. Pritchard. Johns Hopkins University Press, 416 pp.
  • Bour, R. 2008. Global diversity of turtles (Chelonii; Reptilia) in freshwater. Hydrobiologia 595:593–598 - get paper here
  • Das, I. et al. 2008. Tortoises and Freshwater Turtles of India. WWF/WII poster
  • ENGSTROM, TAG N.; H. BRADLEY SHAFFER AND WILLIAM P. MCCORD 2004. Multiple Data Sets, High Homoplasy, and the Phylogeny of Softshell Turtles (Testudines: Trionychidae). Systematic Biology 53 (5): 693–710 - get paper here
  • Ernst,C.H. and Barbour,R.W. 1989. Turtles of the World. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C. - London
  • Ganesh S.R., Bubesh Guptha 2021. Herpetological diversity in the Central Eastern Ghats, Peninsular India. Journal of Animal Diversity 3 (3): 18-44 - get paper here
  • Gemel, R.; Praschag, P. 2003. On the nomenclature and vernacular names of recent Aspideretes species (Reptilia, Testudines, Trionychidae). Zoologische Abhandlungen - Staatliches Museum fur Tierkunde in Dresden 53(1):93-105.
  • Gray, J. E. 1831. Synopsis Reptilium or short descriptions of the species of reptiles. Part I: Cataphracta, tortoises, crocodiles, and enaliosaurians. Treuttel, Wurz & Co., London, 85 pp. - get paper here
  • Gray, J. E. 1864. Revision of the species of Trionychidae found in Asia and Africa, with descriptions of some new species. Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1864: 76-98 - get paper here
  • Gray, J.E. 1872. Notes on the mud-tortoises of India (Trionyx, Geoffroy). Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (4) 10: 326-340. - get paper here
  • Liebing, Nicole; Peter Praschag , Rupali Gosh , Karthikeyan Vasudevan , s.M.a. Rashid, Ding-qi Rao , Heiko Stuckas & Uwe Fritz 2012. Molecular phylogeny of the softshell turtle genus Nilssonia revisited, with first records of N. formosa for China and wild-living N. nigricans for Bangladesh. Vertebrate Zoology 62 (2): 261-272 - get paper here
  • Murthy, T.S.N. 2010. The reptile fauna of India. B.R. Publishing, New Delhi, 332 pp.
  • Nameer, P.O.; KR Unnikrishnan & Jim Thomas 2007. Record of Leith's Softshell Turtle Aspideretes leithii (Gray, 1872) (Family Trionychidae) from Kerala. Reptile Rap (8): 5 - get paper here
  • Palot, M.J. 2015. A checklist of reptiles of Kerala, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 7(13): 8010–8022 - get paper here
  • Patel, Harshil; and Raju Vyas 2019. Reptiles of Gujarat, India: Updated Checklist, Distribution, and Conservation Status. Herpetology Notes 12: 765-777 - get paper here
  • Praschag, P.; Hundsdörfer, A.K.; Reza, A.H.M.A. & Fritz, U. 2007. Genetic evidence for wild-living Aspideretes nigricans and a molecular phylogeny of South Asian softshell turtles (Reptilia: Trionychidae: Aspideretes, Nilssonia). Zoologica Scripta 36 (4): 301-310 - get paper here
  • Purkayastha, J., DAS, I., Sengupta, S. 2015. Freshwater Turtles & Tortoises of South Asia. Bhabani Books, 138 pp. - get paper here
  • Sagar, H. S., Mrunmayee, M., Chethan, I., Kumar, M., & Girish, D. 2019. Elusive, rare and soft: a new site record of Leith’s Softshell Turtle Nilssonia leithii (Reptilia: Testudines: Trionychidae) from Bhadra Tiger Reserve, Karnataka, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa, 11(13), 14770-14772 - get paper here
  • TTWG; Rhodin, A.G.J., Iverson, J.B., Bour, R., Fritz, U., Georges, A., Shaffer, H.B., and van Dijk, P.P. 2021. Turtles of the World: Annotated Checklist and Atlas of Taxonomy, Synonymy, Distribution, and Conservation Status (9th Ed.). In: Rhodin, A.G.J., Iverson, J.B., van Dijk, P.P., Stanford, C.B., Goode, E.V., Buhlmann, K.A., and Mittermeier, R.A. (Eds.). Chelonian Research Monographs 8:1–472. doi:10.3854/crm.8.checklist.atlas.v9.2021. - get paper here
  • Vyas, Raju 2007. Present conservation scenario of reptile fauna in Gujarat State, India. Indian Forester, Oct 2007: 1381-1394 - get paper here
 
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