Indian Flapshell Turtle

Indian Flapshell Turtle
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 2.3)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Subclass:	Anapsida
Order:	Testudines
Suborder:	Cryptodira
Superfamily:	Trionychoidea
Family:	Trionychidae
Genus:	Cyclanorbis
Species:	C. Lissemys
Binomial name
Lissemys punctata Lacépède, 1788
Synonyms
Softshell turtles English

The Indian Flapshell Turtle, Lissemys punctata, a soft-shelled turtle from India, constitute the largest volume of any turtle species in Indian food markets. It is generally mild mannered, but newly caught individuals, especially large adults, may bite. 3 subspecies are recognized.

Characteristics

• Lissemys punctata punctata (Lacepède, 1788), the Indian flapshell turtle, occurs in peninsular India and on Sri Lanka. Its carapace is uniformly olive brown to brown, and the 1st peripheral is only slightly larger than the 2nd; the head is olive to brown with three oblique, parallel black stripes, at least in the young; and the plastron has an entoplastral callosity that is moderate in size and gray brown in color
• L. p. andersoni Webb, 1980a, the Indo-Gangetic flapshell turtle, occurs in the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra drainages in eastern Pakistan, northern India, Sikkim, southeastern Nepal, Bangladesh, and northern coastal Myanmar.
• L. p. scutata (Peters, 1868), the Burmese flapshell turtle, lives in the Irrawaddy and Salween rivers of Myanmar, and occurs in northeastern Thailand, and possibly in Yunnan Province, China (Kuchling, 1995).

Habitat

Lissemys punctata lives in the shallow, quiet, often stagnant waters of rivers, streams, marshes, ponds, lakes and irrigation canals, and tanks. Waters with sand or mud bottoms are preferred.

Fooding

The Indian flapshell turtle are omnivorous. They love to eat small fishes and aquatic plants or flower petals and seeds