Fig. 1. Geographic distribution of Terrapene ornata. Solid symbols indicate the known range of T. o. ornata and hollow symbols the known range of T. o. luteola. Half-circles show the approximate range of intergradation between the two subspecies. Triangles indicate localities recorded in literature; specimens were examined from all other localities shown. Only peripheral localities are shown on the map.
Two subspecies of T. ornata an recognized. Terrapene o. luteola, Smith and Ramsey (1952), ranges from northern Sonora (Guaymas) and southern Arizona (southern Pima County) eastward to southeastern New Mexico and Trans-Pecos, Texas, where it intergrades with T. o. ornata; the latter subspecies is not yet known from Mexico but almost surely occurs in the northeastern part of that country. The subspecies luteola differs from ornata in being slightly larger and in having more pale radiations on the shell (11 to 14 radiations on the second lateral lamina in luteola, five to eight in ornata). In individuals of luteola the markings of the shell become less distinct with advancing age and eventually are lost; shells of most old individuals are uniform straw color or pale greenish-brown; this change in coloration does not occur in T. o. ornata.
Fig. 2. Dorsal and lateral views of skull of T. o. ornata (a and b) (KU 1172, male, from 6 ml. S. Garnett, Anderson Co., Kansas) and of T. carolina (c and d) (KU 39742, from northern Florida). Note the relatively higher brain-case and the incomplete zygomatic arch in T. o. ornata. All figures natural size.
Fossils
Of the several species of fossil Terrapene described (Hay, 1908b:359-367, Auffenberg, 1958), most are clearly allied to Recent T. carolina. One species, Terrapene longinsulae Hay, (1908a:166-168, Pl. 26) from "… the Upper Miocene or Lower Pliocene…." of Phillips County, Kansas, however, is closely related to T. ornata (if not identical). I have examined the type specimen of T. longinsulae. Stock and Bode (1936:234, Pl. 8) reported T. ornata from sub-Recent deposits near Clovis, Curry County, New Mexico.
Economic Importance
Ornate box turtles, referred to as "land terrapins" or "land tortoises" over most of the range of the species, are regarded by most persons whom I have queried as innocuous. These turtles occasionally damage garden crops and have been known to eat the eggs of upland game birds. Terrapene ornata is seldom used for food. A. B. Leonard told me the species was eaten occasionally by Arapaho Indians in Dewey County, Oklahoma. Several specimens in the University of Kansas Archeological Collections were found in Indian middens in Rice County, Kansas, from a culture dated approximately 1500 to 1600 A. D. The flesh of T. ornata occasionally may be toxic if the turtle has eaten toxic fungi as has been recorded for T. carolina (Carr, 1952:147).
Study Areas