Pale dorsal stripe on fleshy portion of each finger, those of second and fourth fingers continuous to mid-humeral region, those of other fingers broken on anterior face of antebrachium; upper and lower pale stripes of antebrachium joined in mid-humeral region.
Coloration of living specimens.—Ground color of soft parts dark olive to slate gray or black; ground color of carapace olive to slate gray; ground color of plastron pale yellow, markings blackish, tinged with brown in younger specimens, sooty black in most adults. Postorbital mark red; other markings on soft parts cream to buffy yellow.
Geographic range.—Pseudemys scripta taylori is known only from ponds, and the Río Chiquito in the basin of Cuatro Ciénegas. The discovery of taylori brings to six the number of valid subspecies of scripta known in México (elegans, gaigeae, hiltoni, nebulosa, ornata, and taylori) and to three (elegans, gaigeae, and taylori) the number known in Coahuila. My own studies of these six subspecies indicate that they are, beyond reasonable doubt, members of a single polytypic species (scripta). I tentatively follow Williams (1956:153) in rejecting "cataspila" as an invalid name.
Three specimens of Pseudemys scripta obtained by Robert G. Webb in the Río Chiquito at a point 8 mi. W of Nadadores, 2100 ft., where the river flows out of the basin of Cuatro Ciénegas, have many characteristics in common with taylori, but resemble elegans closely in several characters as follows: no extensive melanism; plastral markings tending to be brownish; anterior plastral markings smudgelike, isolated or nearly isolated; markings on lateral scutes tending to have vertical, linear arrangement; cutting edge of mandible weakly serrate; femoral edges of plastron not reflected ventrally; one or more fine, pale lines between two major stripes on antebrachium; gular longer than pectoral in one specimen, longer than femoral in both specimens. The nature of these specimens suggests that parts of the Río Salado drainage north and east of Cuatro Ciénegas are in a zone of intergradation between taylori and elegans. I have examined what I consider to be typical examples of P. s. elegans from the region of Múzquiz (CNHM 28843-45, 55625-45), and from Don Martín Reservoir (KU 33524). These localities are, respectively, approximately 70 miles north-northeast and 100 miles east-northeast of Cuatro Ciénegas. The specimens from Múzquiz are presumably the same that Carr (1952:262) treated as "... elegans-cataspila intergrades, but with a strong leaning toward eastern elegans...." Populations of P. scripta in central eastern Coahuila (between the above-mentioned localities and Cuatro Ciénegas) probably are a conglomerate of only two subspecies (elegans and taylori), not including gaigeae (as was suggested by Hamilton, 1947:65 and by Carr, op. cit.:241, map 17;262).
Specimens reported by Schmidt and Owens (1944:101) as P. s. gaigeae (from several localities in the region mentioned above) have been examined in the course of my study and prove to be P. floridana texana. A specimen reported by Shannon and Smith (1949:399; IU 4094, Hidalgo Co., Texas) as being either gaigeae or an elegans-gaigeae intergrade, has been examined and is here regarded as a typical specimen of elegans. I regard P. s. gaigeae as a subspecies of the upper Río Grande and disrupted parts of that drainage; the range of that subspecies meets that of P. s. elegans somewhere between the Big Bend region and Piedras Negras. In any event, the influence of gaigeae is not so widespread as other authors (Carr, loc. cit.; Hamilton, loc. cit.; Hartweg, 1939:3-4) have indicated.
Further collecting in the Río Salado and its tributaries east and north of Cuatro Ciénegas will be necessary before the exact range of P. s. taylori can be determined.
Variation.—Characteristics ascribed to the holotype pertain in general to all specimens in the hypodigm, except as noted below. The postorbital mark is in contact with the eye on one or both sides in 46 per cent of the specimens (narrowly separated from eye in remainder) and is in contact with a neck stripe (on one or both sides) in 35 per cent of the specimens. The pattern of the antebrachium is as shown in Fig. 2 in all specimens except that the thin lateral stripe is obliterated by melanism in older specimens of both sexes. The lateral edges of the posterior plastral lobe are reflected downward, at least slightly, in all but one specimen (an adult, kyphotic female). The first central lamina is straight-sided in juveniles and becomes urn-shaped only in adults. The relative height of the shell tends to increase with a general increase in size in both sexes.
Fig. 1. Pseudemys scripta taylori new subspecies: left side of head, female paratype (KU 46933), × 1.
