Hurter — Herpetology of Missouri. 239 



Key to the Species of Missouri. 



Ridges on alveolar surfaces of jaws smooth. Both jaws with 

 smooth edges. 



With a broad red or orange stripe on each side of head. 

 Carapace with yellow stripes. elegans. 



Without orange stripe on head. Markings of head and 

 neck obscure. Carapace without yellow stripes. 



troosti. 



Ridges on alveolar surfaces of jaws tuberculate. Lower jaw with 



serrated edges. texana 



93. Pseudemys elegans Wied. Elegant Turtle. 



Emys cumberlandensis, Trachemys elegans, Emys elegans, Chrysemys 

 scripta var. elegans, Chrysemys elegans, Clemmys elegans, Emys 

 holbrooMi, Trachemys liolbrookii. 



Description. — Carapace broad, moderately compressed, convex, with 

 a slight keel in the young. Posterior marginal plates obtusely ser- 

 rated. Surface of carapace smooth or wrinkled longitudinally. Nuchal 

 very narrow. Plastron truncate in front and emarginate behind. An- 

 terior lateral angles of the gulars produced. Longest suture of the 

 plastron the one between the abdominals, the shortest the one between 

 the humerals. Upper jaw with a median notch, lower jaw with a corres- 

 ponding median hook. Bridge rising rapidly to the margin of the cara- 

 pace. 



Color. — Color of the carapace olive, with lines and spots of yellow and 

 black. On the vertebral scutes the lines run mostly lengthwise, on the 

 costals transversely. Down the middle of each costal scute runs a yel- 

 low band of varying width. Parallel with it are other lines and bands 

 of black and yellow, narrow or wide. On both the upper and lower 

 surfaces of the marginal scutes are sutural spots, consisting of con- 

 centric circles of yellow and black. Between them a yellow band 

 crosses each marginal. The plastron is yellow, with a black blotch on 

 each scute, these often ocellated with yellow. The spots on the bridge 

 usually confluent. Head with numerous narrow stripes of greenish 

 or yellow. A broad stripe starts under the eye and runs back on the 

 neck, being met at the angle of the jaw by a stripe from the middle 

 of the lower jaw. Another stripe, blood-red in life, yellowish when pre- 

 served, starts at the posterior corner of the eye and runs back on the 

 neck. The legs and tail are striped with yellow. (Hay.) 



The specimen of which the measurements are given has the plastron 

 entirely black with the exception of the front edge of the gulars, the 

 outer edge of the post-gulars and preanals, which are yellowish. 



Size. — Length of carapace 230 mm.; width 152 mm.; depth 102 mm. 

 Length of plastron on median line 218 mm. — sometimes as long as 

 260 mm. 



