White-lipped mud turtle explained

The white-lipped mud turtle (Kinosternon leucostomum) is a species of mud turtle in the family Kinosternidae. The species is endemic to Central America and northwestern South America.

Geographic range

Kinosternon leucostomum is found in Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.^[1]

Subspecies

• Northern white-lipped mud turtle – K. l. leucostomum
• Southern white-lipped mud turtle – K. l. postinguinale

Nota bene

A trinomial authority in parentheses indicates that the subspecies was originally described in a genus other than Kinosternon.

Etymology

The synonym, Cinosternon spurrelli, which is a synonym of Kinosternon leucostomum postinguinale, was named in honor of British zoologist Herbert George Flaxman Spurrell.^[2]

Further reading

• Boulenger GA (1889). Catalogue of the Chelonians, Rhynchocephalians, and Crocodiles in the British Museum (Natural History). New Edition. London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). x + 311 pp. + Plates I-III. (Cinosternon leucostomum, pp. 42–43).
• Duméril AMC, Bibron G (1851). "Cinosternon leucostomum ". In: Duméril AMC, Duméril A[HA] (1851). Catalogue Methodique de la Collection des Reptiles. Paris: Museum d’Histoire Naturelle de Paris / Gide & Baudry. 224 pp. (Cinosternon leucostomum, new species, p. 17). (in French). (https://web.archive.org/web/20120426022220/http://s3.archive-host.com/membres/up/753664049/tiliqua/documents_autres/Catalogue_methodique_de_la_collection_de.pdf).

Notes and References

1. "Kinosternon leucostomum ". The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
2. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (Kinosternon spurrelli, p. 250).