The Vietnamese three-striped box turtle or green rice turtle (''Cuora cyclornata'') is a species of the Southeast Asian genus '' Cuora'' (family

Geoemydidae The Geoemydidae (formerly known as Bataguridae) are one of the largest and most diverse families in the order Testudines (turtles), with about 70 species. The family includes the Eurasian pond and river turtles and Neotropical wood turtles. Mem ...

). It is distributed from the extreme southern part of the Chinese Guangxi province southwards to central

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making it ...

and central Laos. This species reaches up to 30 cm straight

carapace A carapace is a dorsal (upper) section of the exoskeleton or shell in a number of animal groups, including arthropods, such as crustaceans and arachnids, as well as vertebrates, such as turtles and tortoises. In turtles and tortoises, the und ...

length and is thus the largest ''Cuora'' species. Due to demand of

traditional Chinese medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medicine, alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. It has been described as "fraught with pseudoscience", with the majority of its treatments having no logica ...

, this species is nearly

extinct in the wild A species that is extinct in the wild (EW) is one that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as known only by living members kept in captivity or as a naturalized population outside its historic range due t ...

, but is readily bred on Chinese turtle farms. Extremely high prices are paid for this species in China. It can be distinguished from '' Cuora trifasciata'' by its larger size and generally more oval or rounder shell, which is usually also flatter, a white, pink, or orange chin, and head coloration with an orange-brownish-olive dorsal head pattern and less black pigment.

Subspecies

Recognized subspecies: Blanck, T., Protiva, T., Zhou, T., Li, Y., Crow, P., and Tiedemann, R. (2017). New subspecies of ''Cuora cyclornata'', ''Cuora trifasciata'' and ''Cuora aurocapitata''. ''Sichuan Journal of Zoology''. (36): 368–385 *Central Vietnamese three-striped box turtle (''C. c. cyclornata''): Occurring in Central

and adjacent Laos, this subspecies can easily be distinguished from '' Cuora trifasciata'' and ''C. c. meieri'' by its orange chin, its round carapace appearance, the '' Cuora mccordi''/''

Boletus ''Boletus'' is a genus of mushroom-producing fungi, comprising over 100 species. The genus ''Boletus'' was originally broadly defined and described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753, essentially containing all fungi with hymenial pores instead of gil ...

''-like plastral pattern (i.e. a generally large black blotch extending from the anal scutes to the pectorals, in ''C. trifasciata'' and ''C. c. meieri'' extending to the gulars) with a thin black vertical black stripe along the pectoral-humeral suture only and two separated, black, longitudinal bars on the gular scutes. This subspecies can reach a carapace length of up to 25 cm; males are smaller than females (as usual in ''Cuora'' species). *Northern Vietnamese or Meiers three-striped box turtle (''C. c. meieri''): Occurring in extreme southwestern Guangxi Province, China and adjacent northern

, this subspecies can be differentiated from ''C. c. cyclornata'' and ''C. trifasciata'' by its oval shell shape, a white to pinkish chin, rounded humeral-pectoral sutures, and a filled ''Boletus'' plastral pattern. This subspecies can reach a carapace length of up to 30 cm; males are smaller than females. *Annamite Vietnamese three-striped box turtle (''C. c. annamitica''): Occurring in Thanh Hoa Province, Nghe An Province,

Ha Tinh Ha may refer to: Agencies and organizations * Health authority * Hells Angels Motorcycle Club * Highways Agency (now ''National Highways''), UK government body maintaining England's major roads * Homelessness Australia, peak body organisatio ...

Province and northern Quang Binh Province,

, this subspecies can be differentiated from ''C. c. cyclornata'' by its less intense chin coloration, and mainly black plastral front lobe, and can be differentiated from ''C. c. meieri'' by chin coloration, shell shape and plastral structure. This subspecies can reach a carapace length exceeding 30 cm.

Gallery

File:cyclor.JPG, Female ''C. c. cyclornata'' File:Cyclornata2.jpg, Plastron ''C. c. cyclornata'' File:Cuora cyclornata meieri Female.jpg, Female ''C. c. meieri'' File:Cuora cyclornata meieri ventral.jpg, Plastron ''C. c. meieri'' File:PXL 20220308 113822826.jpg, Juvenile ''C. c. annamitica'' File:PXL 20220404 125141864 (1).jpg, Plastron ''C. c. annamitica''

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4795475 Cuora Reptiles of Vietnam