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 (Spinks et al. (2004), Feldman & Parham (2004), Honad et al. (2002). It contains the following species:

• Chinese Stripe-necked Turtle, Ocadia sinensis (Gray, 1831)

The supposed species Ocadia glyphistoma (Mccord & Iverson, 1994) supposedly from southern Guangxi and northern Vietnam is a hybrid between a male O. sinensis and a female Mauremys annamensis/Vietnamese Pond Turtle (Spinks et al. 2004, Stuart & Parham, 2006). This "species" seems to be naturally-occurring in Central Vietnam (evolution in progress) but is occasionally also bred for the pet trade in southern chinese turtle Farms (Blanck et al. in prep). Ocadia philippeni (Mccord & Iverson, 1992) said to occur on Hainan also proofed to be a hybrid between a male O.sinensis and a female Cuora trifasciata (Stuart & Parham, 2006), it is unsure but probable, that this "species" also originates from both the wild and bred in farms. O. sinensis is known to hybridize with most other Geoemydidae (see Vetter & Van Dijk, 2006). Hybridization runs rampant in that family; while it is possible that perfectly valid species could arise this way (Evolution in progress), The other Ocadia are apparently only known from a few specimens each, all of them purchased from a turtle dealer in Hong Kong.

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