Spotted Turtles: Black-Blotched Pale Lowers, Bright-Marked Dark Uppers

Summary: North American spotted turtle habitats get black blotches on yellow lower-shells and orange-yellow spots on black heads, legs, necks and upper-shells.

spotted turtle (Clemmys guttata); Huntley Meadows Park, Fairfax County, Northern Virginia; Sunday, April 17, 2011: MrTinDC, CC BY ND 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

North American spotted turtle habitats accept wetland distribution ranges from southern Maine coastally southward through north-central Florida and interiorly westward to southeasternmost Vermont, northern Ohio through northeasternmost Illinois, Michigan, Ontario and Quebec.

Polka-dot, spotted turtles bear their common name for black-blotched yellow plastrons (lower-shells) and bright, small cream-, orange- or yellow-spotted black carapaces (upper-shells), heads, legs and necks. They claim the genus and species scientific name Clemmys guttata, from the Greek word klemmys for tortoise and the Latin word guttata for speckled or spotted. Descriptions in 1792 by Johann Gottlob Theaenus Schneider (Jan. 18, 1750-Jan. 12, 1822), naturalist from Collm, in modern Germany's North Saxony district of Saxony, drive taxonomies.

Spotted turtles expect bogs, cypress and tamarack swamps, fens, flooded ditches and sedge-meadows, marshes, seasonal ponds, sphagnum seepages, vernal pools and woodland brooks, creeks and streams.

March through May, June through July and August through September fit into spotted turtle life cycles as respective breeding, egg incubation and hatchling emergence time months.

Spotted turtles get 1.2- to 8.6-acre (0.48- to 3.48-hectare) wooded wetland home ranges for aestivating (going drought- and heat-dormant), basking, foraging, hibernating (overwintering), mating and nesting. They have 65- to 1,804-foot (19.81- to 549.96-meter) distances between mud-lodged, semi-submerged logs for basking and tree roots for two- to 93-day summer and winter dormancies. Adults incline on sunny grass mats and tussocks, logs and stumps during spring and inhabit muddy-bottomed, shallow, slow-flowing waters winters or muskrat burrows or lodges summers.

Agroindustry, globally warmed climate change, pet trade, pollution, predation by foxes, muskrats, raccoons, skunks and snapping turtles and vehicular traffic jeopardize North American spotted turtle habitats.

Spotted turtles keep to lower wooded wetland life cycles during breeding seasons and to upland field, meadow and pasture habitat niches for nesting and hatching seasons.

Females annually lay two to eight elliptical, flexible, thin-shelled 0.98- to 1.34-inch- (2.5- to 3.4-centimeter-) long eggs in 2-inch- (5.08-centimeter-) deep, 2-inch (5.08-centimeter) diameter nest cavities. Nests manifest within 50 to 90 days 1- to 1.22-inch (2.54-to 3.1-centimeter) hatchlings that mature physically and sexually into seven- to 13-year-old males and 15-year-old females. Spotted turtles need amphibian eggs and larvae, crustaceans, dead fish, filamentous algae, larval and mature insects, leaves, millipedes, salamanders, slugs, snails, spiders, water-lily seeds and worms.

North American spotted habitats offer season-coldest coastal temperature ranges, northward to southward, from minus 20 to 25 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 28.88 to minus 3.88 degrees Celsius).

Access to shallow, slow-flowing, small-bodied, steady-moving waters and moist, well-drained territorial sites for aestivation (summer dormancy), hibernation (winter dormancy) and nesting promote North American spotted turtles.

Physically and sexually mature 7- to 15-year-olds queue up 3- to 5.35-inch- (7.62- to 13.6-centimeter-) long upper-shells and orange, pink or salmon-red lower legs and necks. Adults reveal keelless (ridgeless), small, unserrated black upper-shells with round, yellow-sprinkled spots on heads and upper limbs and necks and cream-yellow lower-shells with black-, large-blotched borders. Orange-eyed, yellow-jawed females sport flat lower-shells, higher, rounded upper-shells and narrow tails even though brown-eyed, tan-chinned males showcase compressed upper-shells, concave lower-shells and long, thick tails.

Four black legs to orange-speckled, yellow-spotted black-blotched lower-shells with orange, pink or salmon-red lower necks and same-patterned black-blotched upper-shells travel throughout North American spotted turtle habitats.

range map for spotted turtle (Clemmys guttata): NYMFan69-86, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

spotted turtle (Clemmys guttata); Huntley Meadows Park, Fairfax County, Northern Virginia; Sunday, April 17, 2011: MrTinDC, CC BY ND 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_t_in_dc/5632802177/

range map for spotted turtle (Clemmys guttata); Jan. 12, 2011: NYMFan69-86, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spotted_turtle_distribution_1.TIF

For further information:

Aardema, J.; S. Beam; J. Boner; J. Bussone; C. Ewart; I. Kaplan; K. Kiefer; S. Lindsay; E. Merrill; W. Moretz; J. Roberts; E. Rockwell; M. Reott; J. Willson; A. Pickens; W. Guthrie; A. Young; Y. Kornilev; W. Anderson; G. Connette; E. Eskew; E. Teague; M. Thomas; and A. Tutterow. "Spotted Turtle Clemmys guttata." Herps of NC > Amphibians and Reptiles of North Carolina > Turtles.
Available @ https://herpsofnc.org/spotted-turtle/

Babcock, Harold L. (Lester). 1919. "Clemmys guttata (Schneider)." The Turtles of New England; With Sixteen Plates. Monographs on the Natural History of New England; Memoirs of the Boston Society of Natural History, vol. 8, no. 3: 397-400, Plate 27. Boston MA: Boston Society of Natural History.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/12636623
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/turtlesofnewengl00babc#page/397/mode/1up

Baker, Patrick J., Ph.D. 2003. "Spotted turtle Clemmys guttata." Pages 110-111. In: Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, 2nd edition. Volume 7, Reptiles, edited by Michael Hutchins, James B. Murphy and Neil Schlager. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group.

Coy, Thomas. "Spotted Turtle." Austins Turtle Page > Turtle Care > Care Sheets > U.S. Turtles > Pond Turtles > Select.
Available @ http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/cs-spotted.htm

Holbrook, John Edwards, M.D. 1836. "Emys guttata Schneider." North American Herpetology; Or, A Description of the Reptiles Inhabiting the United States. Vol. I: 81-85. Philadelphia PA: J. Dobson.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/4018552

Schneider, J.G. (Johann Gottlob). 1791. "Testudo guttata." Beschreibung und Abbildung einer neuen Art von Wasserschildkröte nebst Bestimmungen einiger bisher wenig bekannten fremden Arten. Schriften der Gesellschaft Naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin, zehnten bandes drittes stud.: 264-265. Berlin, Germany: Berlage der Buchhandlung der Realschule, 1791.
Available via Universität Bielefeld Universitätsbibliothek Digital Collections @ http://ds.ub.uni-bielefeld.de/viewer/image/1923584_014/9/#topDocAnchor

"Spotted Turtle Clemmys guttata." Indiana Herp Atlas > Turtles.
Available @ https://inherpatlas.org/species/clemmys_guttata

"The 2012 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map." The National Gardening Association > Gardening Tools > Learning Library USDA Hardiness Zone > USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map.
Available @ https://garden.org/nga/zipzone/2012/

Uetz, Peter. "Clemmys guttata (Schneider, 1792)." Reptile Database.
Available @ http://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Clemmys&species=guttata&search_param=%28%28search%3D%27Clemmys+guttata%27%29%29