also: ギリシャりくがめ
Greek tortoise; European tortoise
Refers specifically to Testudo graeca, a species of tortoise native to southern Europe and parts of the Middle East. In everyday Japanese, the katakana form is standard.
Greek tortoises are sometimes kept as pets.
The shell of the Greek tortoise is dome-shaped and has beautiful patterns.
Hiragana variant of the kana spelling; less common but still encountered.
Kanji spelling using 陸亀 for 'tortoise'; rarely used in practice.
Ateji spelling for Greece (希臘) combined with 陸亀; very rare and mainly of historical interest.
Compound of ギリシャ (Greece) and リクガメ (tortoise), a direct calque of the English 'Greek tortoise'.