1904 ID M. macrospilota

More from the 1904 Hay publication: Malaclemmys macrospilota. The Florida Terrapin. Distribution. Salt marshes of the western coast of Florida, the limits of the range as far as known being from Charlotte Harbor northward to Sand Key. Characters. The coloration in this species is very characteristic and will serve to distinguish it at a glance. The ground color of the carapace is a deep blue-black, but near the middle of each plate and covering about two- fifths of its area is a conspicuous orange-yellow spot; the marginal plates are largely orange yellow both above and below and as these plates are revolute, a chain of color encircles the body; the plastron is largely yellow or orange yellow, this color having nearly displaced the dusky brown ground color; head and neck a peculiar whitish flesh color, the head almost unmarked but the neck with numerous small black spots; lips and top of the head white; legs and feet light grayish green with many small specks and spots of dark brown or black; tail grayish and usually unmarked. The males are essentially like the females, though much smaller, of course, and with longer tails, but the knobs on the carinae of the vertebral plates seem to be more persistent. In the specimens of M. macrospilota examined by me, about 100 in number, I have observed little variation. Two specimens were almost entirely black, but close examination of these showed traces of the characteristic orange blotches. In a few individuals the lips and the top of the head were dusky. When handled, this terrapin shows more readiness to bite than any of the others, and its strong jaws enable it to inflict a painful wound. In one case a piece was cut cleanly out of the palm of an incautious investigator. It is quite surprising that this beautiful species has escaped the notice of naturalists for so many years, but perhaps the growing scarcity of diamond-back terrapin in northern waters has only recently led to the appearance of this animal in our markets. My first specimens were selected from a barrellful which had been sent from Charlotte Harbor, Florida, to a dealer in Washington. In the summer of 1903 I noticed a considerable number of both males and females in one of the pounds in Crisfield, where they had been received from Sand Key, Florida. In the markets the “Forida terrapin” does not meet with ready sale. Its peculiar coloration proclaims it at once different from the Chesapeake article, and by those who have eaten it, its flesh is said to be somewhat gelatinous and entirely lacking in the qualities which have made the northern species famous.