northeast-flora-and-fauna

A couple days ago I showed a pair of Painted Turtles that I presumed to be Eastern Painted Turtles. Here's an example of a Painted Turtle where the sections of the carapace (scutes) don't align particularly well; their edges (going left to right) do more of a zig-zap thing. When I see this, I have to wonder whether this turtle has some Midland Painted Turtle heritage. (A video is here .) My guess is that unless a pet Midland is released locally, I'm unlikely to see a "pure" Midland Painted Turtle since any immigrant Midlands will interbreed with the far more numerous Eastern Painted Turtles. Here's the Painted Turtle that doesn't have its scutes lining up. Possible Midland Painted Turtle? September 1, 2022 at Duke Island Park Photo 238905615, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) For comparison, here's another Painted Turtle where the scutes align pretty solidly. Classic Eastern Painted Turtle September 1, 2022 at Duke Island Park Photo 238...

I got this overhead view of an Eastern Painted Turtle last summer. I think it gives a really good view of the scute alignment that can differentiate the Eastern Painted Turtle from the Midland Painted Turtle . Both of these are essentially the same turtle. They're different subspecies of the same species, so interbreeding would presumably happen quite a bit except they have somewhat different ranges. August 30, 2022 at Washington Valley Park Photo 229847442, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) Each of those "shell pieces" is a scute; this picture illustrates that alignment I've talked about. Across the middle of the back, scutes align perfectly

From last summer, here are a couple Eastern Painted Turtles . I suspect they were out catching some rays, basking in the sun. If you get a good look at the carapace , these turtles are pretty easy to identify by the way the scutes on the carapace create almost straight lines from side to side. I have occasionally seen turtles that look very similar but with scutes that don't align; I'm suspicious that they might be Midland Painted Turtles . These 2 turtles with similar names are actually subspecies of the same Painted Turtle species. Since they are subspecies, I suspect they can and do interbreed at times. All that green in the water may not bother these turtles; in fact they probably eat it. I'm not sure of its composition but Painted Turtles are known to eat a fair amount of "duckweed and algae".  August 19, 2021 at Duke Farms Photo 152592365, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)