Order: Testudines
Family: Trionychidae
Size: up to 23.8-36.8 cm in carapace length
Key Features: carapace of viewed from above is broadly oval in adults, but more circular in young, widest just anterior to hind limbs. The carapace is moderately arched, shell height is 35.0-40.5% of carapace length; a pair of large flaps can be closed over the hind limbs and a smaller flap over tail; the head is large; proboscis is short and stout; the edges of the jaws are smooth, the alveolar surfaces are expanded and granular. The claws are large and heavy; the penis is thick and oval, with deep dorsal cleft and four pointed, soft papillae; the tail is very short in both sexes.
Breeding: Nesting generally occurs in late summer and extends into the monsoon season, July through November. Clutch size varies from 4–15 eggs, which generally have a prolonged incubation period of > 300 days.
Diet: known to be omnivorous. Its diet consists of frogs, fishes, shrimp, snails, aquatic vegetation, plant leaves, flowers, fruits, grasses, and seeds.
Habitat: Individuals are adaptable and durable, occurring in a variety of aquatic habitats, ranging from rivers and streams to reservoirs, marshes, ponds, lakes, and even salt marshes, rice fields, gutters, and canals in metropolitan areas. It is common in brackish water lagoons on the east coast of India, and is often abundant in irrigation canals and tanks, and paddy fields with stagnant water.
Habits: These turtles are very well adapted, both morphologically and behaviourally, to drought conditions. The turtle uses mainly burrowing and moving from water hole to water hole to avoid desiccation. The femoral flaps that cover the retracted legs help the turtle survive dry conditions. During a time of drought, the turtles enter a time of aestivation in an attempt to survive the dry conditions. Although many turtles die during drought conditions, some turtles have been reported to survive up to 160 days.
Conservation Status: Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
References:
Minton, S. A. Jr 1966 A contribution to the herpetology of West Pakistan. Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 134(2)
Environmental Information System (ENVIS) center of India. Zoological Survey of India. Lissemis punctata. (http://zsienvis.nic.in/endb/end_reptilia/reptilia_data/lissemys_punctata.htm)
Ernst, C., Altenburg, R. and Barbour R. 1997. Turtles of the World. Netherlands Biodiversity Information Facility. (http://nlbif.eti.uva.nl/bis/turtles.php?menuentry=soorten&id=222)
IUCN Red List (2014). http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/46579/0
S. Bhupathy, Robert G. Webb and Peter Praschag (2014). Lissemys punctata (Bonnaterre 1789) - Indian Flapshell Turtle. Chelonian Research Foundation. (http://www.iucn-tftsg.org/wp-content/uploads/file/Accounts/crm_5_076_punctata_v1_2014.pdf)
Photo Courtesy
L. Shyamal, Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons
Indian Flapshell Turtle (Lissemys punctata)
