Cuora amboinensis, Malaysian box turtle

The genus Cuora is comprised of a single species: Cuora amboinensis (Iverson, 2007). C. amboinensis has four
recognized subspecies, C. a. amboinensis (Daudin 1801 "1802”), C. a. couro (Schweigger 1812), C. a. kamaroma
(Rummler and Fritz 1991), and C. a. lineata (McCord and Philippen 1998).

Description:

Cuora amboinensis is a large tropical aquatic turtle possessing an anterior
plastral hinge that completely closes similarly to box and mud turtles.
Commonly reaching a SCL of 15 - 20 cm some individual reaching up to
28 cm.

Coloration is similar throughout the species & subspecies. Carapace is dark
brown to black. C. amboinensis exhibits black marks on the ventral sides
of the marginal scutes. Plastron is predominately cream to yellow with
black marks on the
scutes.

The head is black with yellow stripes on the head and jaw.

Sexual dimorphism does occur with males possessing significantly larger tails
and a concave plastron while females are larger but have flat plastrons with significantly smaller tails than the male.

Identification:

Male and female C. amboinensis are easily distinguished from one another by the tail and plastron. In males the plastron is
concave and tail is nearly equal in length to the hind limbs. Females have a flat plastron and their tail barely extends
beyond the posterior edge of the carapace.