COPEIA 97 



Formerly its range was considered very limited. 

 Holbrook 6 (1842) states that it does not extend 

 north of the Delaware River, or south of Chesapeake 

 Bay, although abundant within those limits. This in- 

 cludes the Pine Barrens of New Jersey: DeKay 7 

 gives the "neighborhood of the city of New York" 

 as its extreme northern limit and states that it is not 

 found farther south than Virginia. Agassiz 8 says 

 "it extends only from New Jersey to Virginia." Dit- 

 mars,' 9 however, in 1908, makes its distribution much 

 wider, as follows: "Occurs in eastern Ohio, Pennsyl- 

 vania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, the two 

 Virginias, and northern North Carolina." This 

 Massachusetts record, therefore, establishes a new 

 northern limit of distribution. 



This species is the Ptychemys rugosa of Agassiz. 

 drawings of which appear on Plates XXVI and 

 XXVII in Vol. II of his "Contributions to the Nat- 

 ural History of the United States of America." His 

 specimens came from Washington, D. C. There are 

 three specimens from Plymouth in the collection of 

 the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge/' 

 and one in the collection of the Boston Society of 

 Natural History." 



Commercially these terrapins are known as 

 "Sliders" and are assuming an important role in the 

 localities where they are abundant, as a substitute for 

 the more expensive "Diamond-back." The flesh is 

 said to have an excellent flavor. 



« Ibid. 



7 Zoology of New York, Part III, James E. DeKay, 1842, p. 1(5. 

 S Contributions to the Natural History of the United States of Amer- 

 ica, Vol. I, Louis Agassiz, 1857, p. 432. 

 The Reptile Book, R. L. Ditmars, 1908, p. 39. 



10 (1) Specimen from Upper West Pond. Collected October, 1905, by 



F. A. Lucas. 



(2) Specimen from Boot Pond. Collected July, 1912, by H. J. Thay- 



er, weight 10 pounds. 



(3) Specimen from Gunner's Exchange Pond. Collected July, 1912, 



by H. J. Thayer. 



11 Specimen from Hillfield Pond, Plymouth. Collected June 19, 1916, 



by H. L. Babcock. Length of carapace, 11% inches. Male. 



