Morphology And Food Analysis Of Geoemyda Spengleri’s Digestive System

The Geoemyda Gray have two kinds,G.spengleri and G.japonica.In China it is distributed mainly over some southern provinces like Hainan,Guangdong,Guangxi.During the last few years,more and more Geoemyda spengleri were caught in the wild,populations were severely damaged,but the artificial breeding’s survival ratio is very low.In order to gain a full understanding of morphological characters and the structure of Geoemyda spengleri’s digestive system.This paper use the morphological research methods to draw the picture of carapace、plastron and scutes、bones and describe the characteristics in details.This paper also use the method of gross anatomy and living turtle raising to study the digestive structure and diet.Later,we gained more diet information after visititing the farmers and turtle habitat in Hainan.Talking it from the morphology,the Geoemyda spengleri’s carapace and plastron consist of scutes and bones,do not have axillary and inguinal.The carapacial scutes consist of cervical(1)、vertebral(7)、supracaudal(2)、marginal(22)、costal(8).The carapacial bones consist of nuchal(1)、neural(7)、suprapygal(2)、pygal(1)、peripheral(22).The plastral scutes consist of gular(2)、humeral(2)、pectoral(2)、abdominal(2)、femoral(2)、anal(2).The plastral bones consist of epiplastron(2)、entoplastron(1)、hyoplastron(2)、hypoplastron(2)、xiphiplastron(2).The Geoemyda spengleri has big eyes and bright-coloured stripes on the two sides of the neck.This kind of turtle have sharp beak and keratinized gingival.It’s beak type show the regulation that structure is adjust to its functions.The digestive system consists of two parts:disgestive tract and disgestivegland.The Geoemyda spengleri’s digestive tract have five parts:1.cavum oropharyngeum,2.esophagus,3.stomach,4.small intestine,5.large intestine.The digestive tract’s length is 3.70 times as large as the maximum straight carapace length.The length of small intestine account for more than half of the whole digestive tract(52.7%).The Geoemyda spengler’s disgestive gland is liver and pancreas.The liver was dust-colour and divided into two leaves covering the stomach and intestine.The average liver weight is 3.53g and the liver’s weight is account 2.8%of the body weight.The gallbladder is located near the right side of the liver,get in touch with duodenum.The pancreas connects the duodenum through the mesentery and complex blood vessel.After the anatomical analysis of digestive tract,the feeding habit of Geoemyda spengleri containing insects,larvae,and Millipedes(Gonatopus sp.,Lucilia sericata,Julus terrestris).Under the conditions of artificial feeding,the G.spengleri can eat such as Insecta,Myriapoda,Oligochaeta,Crustacea,Arachnida.Through the field inveatigation we know the Geoemyda spengleri eat the Pitaya、Pheretima、Tenebrio molitor.The artificial breeding predatory behavior can roughly divided into four stages:1.wait and see 2.monocular gaze 3.approach the prey 4.snatch the prey.The morphological research of Geoemyda spengleri’s digestive system provide the firsthand data for turtle protection,for example,the depth of gavage administration,characteristics of digestive tract,which fills the gap of similar studies.After the gross anatomy,we know the Geoemyda spengleri’s diet and enriched the achievements.The research of diet can help to understand the habitat of the turtle and provide reference for the conservation of Geoemyda spengleri.