THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Reptilia    Testudines    Emydidae  

Chicken Turtle
Deirochelys reticularia (Latreille in Sonnini de Manoncourt and Latreille, 1801)
DAY-roh-KEE-leez — reh-tik-yoo-LAIR-ee-uh

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 There are no current SSAR comments for this taxon.

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2023.04.08.21.36.21)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.92 MB

Province/State Distribution:
United States: Alabama Arkansas Florida Georgia Louisiana Mississippi Missouri North Carolina Oklahoma South Carolina Texas Virginia

Taxonomic Etymology:
A turtle with a net-like shell pattern and an unusually long neck.
Deirochelys — From Greek deirē (δειρή), “neck,” and chelys (χέλυς), “turtle.” The name means “neck turtle,” referring to its long, flexible neck.
reticularia — From Latin reticulum, “net,” and -aria, “pertaining to.” Refers to the net-like, reticulated pattern on the carapace.

First instance(s) of published English names:
Reticulated Terrapin (Emys reticulata: Gray, John E. 1830. A synopsis of the species of the class reptilia. Pages 1-110 in The Animal Kingdom Arranged in Conformity with its Organization by the Baron Cuvier, member of teh Institute of France, with Additional Descriptions of all the Species Hitherto Named, and of many not before noticed. Ninth Volume. Whittaker, Treacher, and Company, London, England. pp.); Chicken Tortoise (Emys reticularia: Gray, John E. 1856. Catalogue of shield reptiles in the collection of the British Museum. Part I. Testudinata (Tortoises). Taylor and Francis, London, England. 79pp.); Chicken Turtle (Chrysemys reticulata: Yarrow, Henry C. 1882. Check list of North American Reptilia and Batrachia with catalogue of specimens in U. S. National Museum. Bulletin of the United States National Museum (24):1-249); Southern Painted Turtle (Chrysemys reticulata: Davis, N. S. Jr. and Frank L. Rice. 1883. Descriptive catalogue of North American batrachia and reptilia, found east of Mississippi River. Illinois Natural History Survey Bulletin 1(5):71); Chicken Turtle (Deirochelys reticulata: Brimley, Clement S. 1915. List of reptiles and amphibians of North Carolina. Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 30(4):195-206); Chicken Turtle (Deirochelys reticularia: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.);

Taxon Links:

  
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
  
The Reptile Database
  
NatureServe
  
iNaturalist
  
GenBank
  
USGS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

Selected References:
1801 Latreille, Pierre Andr. XXII Genre. Hétérodon, Heterodon. Pages 32-37 in Sonnini and Latreille, Histoire Naturelle des Reptiles avec figures dessinées d’après nature, Vol. 4: Chez Deterville, Paris, France.. pp.
1950 Webb, Robert G. Range extension of the Chicken Turtle in Oklahoma. Herpetologica 6(5):137-138
1971 Zug, George R. and Schwartz, Albert. Deirochelys, D. reticularia. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (107):1-3
1991 Collins, Joseph T. Amphibians and reptiles in the upper Mississippi river valley: Systematic and distributional problems. Journal of the Tennessee Academy of Science 66(4):149-152
2002 Seidel, Michael E. Hemoglobin variation and comments on systematic relationships in the turtle family Emydidae. Copeia 2002(4):1118-1121

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Friday 05 December 2025 16:57 CT