A revision of African helmeted terrapins (Testudines: Pelomedusidae: Pelomedusa), with descriptions of six new species Petzold, Alice Vargas-Ramírez, Mario Kehlmaier, Christian Vamberger, Melita Branch, William R. Preez, Louis Du Hofmeyr, Margaretha D. Meyer, Leon Schleicher, Alfred Široký, Pavel Fritz, Uwe Zootaxa 2014 2014-05-15 3795 5 523 548 Petzold & Vargas-Ramírez & Kehlmaier & Vamberger & Branch & Preez & Hofmeyr & Meyer & Schleicher & Široký & Fritz, 2014 Petzold & Vargas-Ramírez & Kehlmaier & Vamberger & Branch & Preez & Hofmeyr & Meyer & Schleicher & Široký & Fritz 2014 [151,362,1434,1460] Reptilia Pelomedusidae Pelomedusa Animalia Testudines 12 535 Chordata species kobe sp. nov.   Diagnosis:Medium-sized to, perhaps, large-sized helmeted terrapins with a known maximum straight carapacial length of 15.9 cm. Pectoral scutes rectangular with wide midseam contact or triangular with narrow midseam contact. Normally one large undivided temporal head scale present. Two, rarely three, small barbels under chin. Larger specimens with chestnut carapace and yellow plastron with darker elements along the distal seams; soft parts ventrally lighter than dorsally.  Pelomedusa kobediffers from all other  Pelomedusaspeciesexcept  P. gehafie,  P. subrufa sensu strictoand candidate species B by the presence of guanine (G) instead of adenine (A) at position 223 of the 360-bp-long reference alignment of the 12S rRNA gene (Supporting Information).  Pelomedusa kobediffers from these three species by the presence of cytosine (C) instead of thymine (T) at position 188 and from the individual species as shown in Table 5.     Holotype: Zoologische Staatssammlung München( ZSM 334/1978:1, juvenile, Naberera, Manyara, Tanzania, S4°11.66 E36°55.74; leg. J. Popp,  16 July 1960; Fig. 3bottom).   Description of the holotype:Straight carapacial length 7.5 cm, plastral length 6.5 cm. Pectoral scutes with wide midseam contact. One large undivided temporal scale on each side of head. Two small barbels under chin. Carapace chestnut; plastron yellow with some darker elements concentrated along the seams; gulars, intergular and anals mostly dark. Soft parts dorsally greenish brown, ventrally ochre.   TABLE 5.Diagnostic sites of  Pelomedusa kobe,  P. gehafie,  P. subrufa sensu strictoand  Pelomedusacandidate species B in the 360-bp-long reference alignment of 12S sequences (Supporting Information).     Position   P. kobe   P. gehafie   P. subrufa  Candidate species B  95 C C T C  103 C C C T  109 T T T C  117 T T C T  122 C C C A  125 T T T C  126 gap gap gap T  147 C C/G C A  148 A A C G  152 T T T C  154 A A A G  159 A A G A  166 C C C A  167 T T C T  168 gap gap gap T  169 A A T A  180 A A A G  188 C T T T  191 A C T A  226 A A G A  233 G G A A  256 A G A A  266 T T T C  268 C A C/A T  274 C C C T  280 C C A C  287 T T T C  296 A A G A  298 T C C gap  302 T T T A  303 C C C A  326 T T T C  337 T T C T  343 A A G A  345 C T C/T C    Paratypes: Museumfür Naturkunde, Berlin( ZMB11741, female, Pumbo creek, Monda/ Unguru, Morogoro, Tanzania; ZMB11742, juvenile, Tabora, Tanzania); Zoologische Staatssammlung München ( ZSM 285/1937:1–3, male and  two juveniles, Tanganyika; ZSM 334/1978:2, hatchling, same data as holotype; ZSM 96/1960:1–5, two hatchlings and three juveniles, same data as holotype).   Derivatio nominis:The species name  kobeis the Swahili word for terrapin. It is used as a noun in apposition (ICZN 1999: Art. 31.1).   Distribution:Only known from Tanzania, where it occurs in the Arusha regionin close proximity to, or in sympatry with,  P. neumanniand  P. subrufa.   Remarks:The genetic lineage corresponding to  P. kobewas previously unknown.  Pelomedusa kobebelongs to the northern species group of  Pelomedusaand is related to  P. gehafieand  P. neumanni( Fig. 1).   Pelomedusa kobe most likely reaches a much larger size than c. 16 cmbecause the largest type specimens still have wide fresh growth rings. One of the paratypes( ZMB11742) has the temporal scales on each side of the head divided into two smaller scales, whilst all other types have large undivided temporal scales. Hatchlings of  P. kobehave conspicuous light horn-coloured shell margins. The paratype ZSM 96/1960:1 has three barbels under the chin. 3319794315 1960-07-16 ZSM J. Popp Tanzania -4.1943336 Zoologische Staatssammlung Munchen 13 36.929 Naberera 12 535 ZSM 334 1 Manyara holotype 3319794307 ZMB 11741, ZMB 11742 ZMB Tanzania Unguru Museum Monda 13 536 1 Morogoro paratype 3319794308 ZSM Tanzania 13 536 ZSM 285 1 Morogoro paratype 3319794305 1960-07-16 ZSM J. Popp Tanzania -4.1943336 Zoologische Staatssammlung Munchen 13 36.929 Naberera 13 536 ZSM 334, ZSM 96 2 2 Manyara holotype 3319794303 ZMB 11742 ZMB 14 537 ZSM 96 2 paratype