North American Bullfrog Habitats Are Permanent Ponds and Slow Streams

Summary: North American bullfrog habitats are permanent ponds and slow streams in southeastern Canada and all but North Dakota in the contiguous United States.

American bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana; Lithobates catesbeianus); Big Thicket National Preserve, Orange County, southeastern Texas: USGS National Wetlands Research Center/Brad Michael "Bones" Glorioso, Public Domain, via USGS Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative (ARMI

North American bullfrog habitats are permanent ponds and slow streams in southernmost Ontario, Québec, New Brunswick and Nova Scota in southeastern Canada and all but North Dakota in the contiguous United States.

Bullfrogs bear their common name for breeding males bellowing bull-like, jug-o-rum advertisement calls and for membership in the large-limbed, moist-skinned, smooth-skinned, strong-legged, web-footed Ranidae true-frog family. They carry the accepted scientific name Rana catesbeianus (from Latin rāna, “frog” and the anticipated genus renaming Lithobates catesbeianus (from Greek λίθος [“stone”] and βάτης [“treader”]). Taxonomic designations defer to scientific descriptions in 1802 by George Kearsley Shaw (Dec. 10, 1751-July 22, 1813 and to Mark Catesby (March 24, 1682/1683-Dec. 23, 1749).

Bullfrog life cycles expect large, permanent lakes and ponds and slow-moving streams with spring and summer, side-by-side shoreline territories established by larger males for encountering mates.

Life cycles with 7- to 10-year life expectancies annually furnish physically and sexually mature 1- to 2-year-old males and 2- to 3-year-old females with breeding-season months.

Female North American bullfrogs go through, and get together in, permanent waterscape territories that the greatest-sized males garner and guard during May through July breeding-season months. Such territories hold the one to three clutches, each with 3,000 to 20,000, 0.05- to 0.07-inch (1.2- to 1.7-millimeter) diameter, surface-floating, black-and-white eggs, of mated females. Five-day-long egg intervals initiate fish-like, gill-breathing, herbivorous (from Latin herba, “grass” and vorō, “I devour”), swimming tadpoles impelled, within 1 to 1-plus years, into metamorphosed intervals.

Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis fungal disease, climate change from global warming, fertilizer runoff, nonnative species, toxic pesticides, trematode fluke-induced deformities and ultraviolet radiation jeopardize North American bullfrog habitats.

Sometimes their biology kindles their metamorphosis, from tadpoles maximally 5 to 6 inches (125 to 130 millimeters) long, into leaping, legged, lung-breathing, tail-less Anuran order froglets.

North American bullfrogs in the four southeastern Canadian provinces and throughout the northern United States sometimes live in tadpole stages longer than 2.4 to 4 years. Crayfish, dragonfly nymphs and giant waterbugs menace tadpoles even as crows, garter and hognosed snakes, gopher frogs, marine toads, raccoons and raptors menace toadlets and toads. Tadpoles need algae, organic debris, plant tissue and suspended matter even as bats, beetles, crayfish, insects, lizards, mosquitoes, newts, scorpions, snails, snakes and spiders nourish adults.

North American bullfrog habitats offer their season's coldest temperature ranges, northward to southward, from minus 45 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 42.78 to 4.4 degrees Celsius).

Frog collectors for pet stores and research laboratories, frog and trophy-part hunters and frog-leg collectors for grocery store, grocery retail and restaurant industries predatorize American bullfrogs.

Lang Elliott, Carl Gerhardt and Carlos Davidson quantify 3.5- to 8-inch (8.89- to 20.32-centimeter) snout-vent (excrementary opening) lengths in The Frogs and Toads of North America. The blunt-snouted, green-bodied, green-headed adults reveal dark, gold-rimmed eyes; dark-marked, white-yellow abdomens; and hind-foot webbing removed from the last joint of each hind foot's longest toe. Advertisement, aggression and fear respectively sound like bass-pitched, loud, resonant jug-o-rum, rumm-rumm-rumm and stuttering ruuuummm-ruuuummm calls, like abrupt spit-like phphoot! calls and like loud eeek! vocalizations.

North American bullfrog habitats transmit bull-like, jug-o-rum bellows from big-eardrum, blunt-snouted, dark-eyed and gold-rimmed, green-headed, brown-gray-rust-patterned or all-green, large bodies with dark-marked or plain yellow-white abdomens.

range map for American bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana; Lithobates catesbeianus): U.S. Geological Survey Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center (NPWRC), 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:

American bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana; Lithobates catesbeianus); Big Thicket National Preserve, Orange County, southeastern Texas: USGS National Wetlands Research Center/Brad Michael "Bones" Glorioso, Public Domain, via USGS Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative (ARMI) @ https://armi.usgs.gov/gallery/result.php?search=Lithobates+catesbeianus

range map for American bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana; Lithobates catesbeianus): U.S. Geological Survey Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center (NPWRC), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bullfrog_range.png

For further information:

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Available @ https://herpsofnc.org/american-bullfrog/#:~:text=The%20bullfrog%20is%20usually%20some,our%20other%20%E2%80%9Ctrue%20frogs.%E2%80%9D

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North American Common Eastern Musk Stinkpot Turtle Habitats Are Watery

Summary: North American common eastern musk stinkpot turtle habitats are watery, weedy, woody plains to Atlantic coasts in east United States and southeast Canada.

common eastern musk turtle (Sternotherus odoratus); southeastern Ontario, east central Canada; Sunday, June 19, 2011, 23:03: Ontley, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

North American common eastern musk stinkpot turtle habitats are grassy, herbaceous, watery, weedy, woody areas in eastern United States and southeastern Canada, from the eastern Great Plains eastward to the Atlantic coast.

Stinkpot turtles bear their common name because of two-paired musk glands that bathe bullies in bad-colored, bad-scented, bad-textured secretions from beneath carapaces (from Spanish carapacho, “shell”]). They carry the scientific name Sternotherus odoratus (from Greek στέρνον, “breastbone” and θήρ [“animal, beast”] and -ῐον [“little”] via θηρίον and from Latin odōrātus, “odor, smell”). Scientific descriptions by Pierre André Latreille (Nov. 29, 1762-Feb. 6, 1833) decided the designation Testudo odorata (from Latin testa [“earthenware, shell fragment”] via testūdō, “tortoise, turtle”).

Common eastern musk stinkpot turtle life cycles expect muddy-bottomed canals, lakes, ponds and swamps with emergent, floating, submerged and waterside vegetation, muskrat lodges and rotting wood.

Spring and fall or one season, not the other, breeding, mating and nesting between February and October fit between mating underwater and 65- to 86-day incubations.

Ghastly secretions and vegetated-water dives guard Testudines (from Latin testūdō, "turtle" and Greek -ηνός via Latin –īnus, “of”) order’s Kinosternidae mud and musk turtle family members. Secretion-hurtling kinosternids (from Greek κῑνέω [“to move”], στέρνον [“breastbone”] and -ειδής [“-like”] via Latin -idæ) hunker onto floating trunks and vegetation to have higher body-temperature hunts. Long necks incline as far backward and sideward as hind limbs increase the likelihood of inflicting injurious bites when diving or stink-bombing is not an option.

Predatory bullfrogs, fisher cats, foxes, large fishes, large wading birds, raccoons, raptors, skunks, snapping turtles and watersnakes jeopardize North American common eastern musk stinkpot turtle habitats.

People collecting aquarium, research and zoo species, developing Atlantic and Gulf coastlines, drilling offshore, littering plastics and operating watercraft kindle stinkpot turtles’ biting, hiding, stink-bombing self-defenses.

Leaf litter or maximally 4-inch- (10-centimeter-) deep humus or soft-dirt nests annually lodge one to two northern and one to four southern 1- to 9-egg clutches. Miasmatic embryos in brittle, elliptical, off-white, porcelain-like, thick-shelled, translucent 0.9- to 1.2- by 0.5- to 0.7-inch (22- to 31-millimeter by 13- to 17-millimeter) eggs menace predators. Triangular cross-sectioned, 0.8-inch- (27-millimeter-) long hatchlings need to negotiate whatever niches and nooks need navigating to nestle among nearest water-body baby, juvenile and mature turtle numbers.

North American common eastern musk stinkpot turtle habitats offer season-coldest temperatures from northernmost minus 40 to southernmost 40 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 40 to 4.44 degrees Celsius).

Stinkpot turtles pursue basking on 7-foot- (2-meter-) high trunks and foraging dead and living, water-bottom clams, crabs, crayfish, earthworms, fish, fish eggs, insects, snails and tadpoles.

Three- to five-, five-plus-year-old males and five- to 11-, 11-plus-year-old females queue algae-layered, elongated, high-domed, oval, smooth, 3- to 5.4-inch- (7.6- to 13.7-centimeter-) long, three-keeled carapaces. Maturity reveals chin and throat barbels (sensory-organ whiskers, from Latin barba, “beards”); double-striped, long-necked heads; and broad, short tails blunt-horned in males, sometimes sharp-horned in females. Juveniles show dark-, irregular-keeled, patterned, spotted, streaked carapaces even as mature stinkpots sustain 11-scuted (plated, from Latin scūtum, “shield”) upper-shell sides to one-hinged, 11-scuted lower-shell plastrons.

North American common eastern musk stinkpot turtle habitats trigger, when threatened, stink-bombs tossed from between brown-gray-olive upper-shell carapaces with non-serrated rear margins and brown-yellow lower-shell plastrons.

range map for common eastern musk stinkpot turtle (Sternotherus odoratus); Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2011, 12:41: Map of USA without state names.svg: Angr; derivative work: Gigillo83, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, 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:

common eastern musk turtle (Sternotherus odoratus); southeastern Ontario, east central Canada; Sunday, June 19, 2011, 23:03: Ontley, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stinkpot_Turtle.jpg

range map for common eastern musk stinkpot turtle (Sternotherus odoratus); Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2011, 12:41: Map of USA without state names.svg: Angr; derivative work: Gigillo83, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sternotherus_Odoratus_diffusion.svg

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. "Common Musk Turtle Sternotherus odoratus." Herps of NC > Amphibians and Reptiles of North Carolina > Turtles.
Available @ https://herpsofnc.org/common-musk-turtle/

"American Mud and Musk Turtles (Kinosternidae)." Pages 121-123. 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, 2003.

Andrews, Kimberly. "Common Musk Turtle (Sternotherus odoratus)." Edited by J.D. Willson. University of Georgia > Savannah River Ecology Laboratory > Herpetology at SREL > Reptiles and Amphibians of SC and GA > Turtles of SC and GA.
Available @ https://srelherp.uga.edu/turtles/steodo.htm

Babcock, Harold L. (Lester). 1919. "Kinosternon odoratum (Latreille). Musk Turtle; Stink-Pot. Plate 21." 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: 359-362; Plate 21. Boston MA: Boston Society of Natural History.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/12636562
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/turtlesofnewengl00babc#page/359/mode/1up

Beane, Jeffrey C.; Alvin L. Braswell; Joseph C. Mitchell; William M. Palmer; and Julian R. Harrison III. 2010. "Eastern Musk Turtle Sternotherus odoratus." Page 163. In: Amphibians and Reptiles of the Carolinas and Virginia. With contributions by Bernard S. Martof and Joseph R. Bailey. Second Edition, Revised and Updated. Chapel Hill NC: The University of North Carolina.

"Common Musk Turtle Sternotherus odoratus." Excerpted from Animal Diversity. Wisconsin Pollinators > Publications > Articles > Wisconsin Pollinators Reference Articles > Native Species Profiles > Wisconsin Native Turtles.
Available @ https://wisconsinpollinators.com/Articles/T_Musk.aspx

Coy, Thomas. "Sternotherus odoratus." Austins Turtle Page > Turtle Care > Care Sheets > U.S. Turtles > Musk Turtles > Select.
Available @ http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/caresheet-stinkpot.htm

Coyote Peterson. 26 March 2014. "Common Musk Turtle (Sternotherus odoratus) is a species of small turtle native to southeastern Canada and much of the Eastern United States. . . ." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=628336710575340

"Eastern Musk Turtle, Sternotherus odoratus." Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency > Wildlife/Biodiversity > Reptiles > Turtles in Tennessee.
Available @ https://www.tn.gov/twra/wildlife/reptiles/turtle/eastern-musk-turtle.html

Holbrook, John Edwards. 1838. "Sternothaerus odoratus -- Bosc." North American Herpetology; Or, A Description of the Reptiles Inhabiting the United States. Vol. III: 29-33. Philadelphia PA: J. Dobson.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/3682996

Iverson, John B., PhD. 2003. "Stinkpot Sternotherus odoratus." Page 126. 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.

LeClere, Jeff. "Eastern Musk Turtle (Sternotherus odoratus)." Amphibians and Reptiles of Iowa > Turtles > Turtles of Iowa.
Available @ http://www.herpnet.net/Iowa-Herpetology/reptiles/turtles/common-musk-turtle-sternotherus-odoratus/

Millar, Catherine S. 2012. COSEWIC Assessment and Status Report on the Eastern Musk Turtle Sternotherus odoratus in Canada. Special Concern 2012. Ottawa, ON: COSEWIC [Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada] Secretariat, c/o Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment Canada.
Available @ https://www.registrelep-sararegistry.gc.ca/virtual_sara/files/cosewic/sr_Eastern%20Musk%20Turtle_2013_e.pdf

Sonnini, C.S. (Charles-Nicolas-Sigisbert); P.A. (Pierre André) Latreille. 1801."La Tortue odorante, Testudo odorata." Histoire Naturelle des Reptiles, Avec Figures Dessinées d'après Nature. Première Partie: Quadrupèdes et Bipèdes Ovipares. Tome premier: 122-124. Paris, France: Imprimerie de Crapelet, An X (September 1801-September 1802).
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/3688642

Stabler, Kara. 2000. "Sternotherus odoratus Common Musk Turtle, Stinkpot Turtle" (On-line). Animal Diversity Web. Ann Arbor MI: University of Michigan Museum of Zoology.
Available @ https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Sternotherus_odoratus/

"Stinkpot Sternotherus odoratus." Indiana Herp Atlas > Turtles.
Available @ https://inherpatlas.org/species/sternotherus_odoratus

"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. "Sternotherus odoratus (Latreille, 1802)." Reptile Database.
Available @ http://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Sternotherus&species=odoratus&search_param=%28%28genus%3D%27Sternotherus%27%29%29

North American Pond Slider Habitats Are Clayey, Loamy, Sandy, Watery

Summary: North American pond slider habitats are clayey, loamy, sandy, watery home ranges that accommodate autumn and spring mating and spring and summer nesting.

The appellation pond slider and pond slider turtle accommodates one species that arranges taxonomically into three subspecies. Yellow-bellied pond sliders act as species, Trachemys scripta (from Greek τρᾱχύς, “rough” and ἐμύς, “freshwater tortoise [Emys orbicularis, European pond turtle]” and from Latin scrīpta, “text, writing, written”), and as first-named, nominate subspecies, Trachemys scripta scripta. The species allows another two subspecies: Cumberland sliders (acknowledged additionally as Cumberland turtle and Troost’s turtle commonly and, for naturalist Gerardus Troost [March 5, 1776-Aug. 14, 1850], Trachemys scripta troostii scientifically); and red-eared sliders (acknowledged additionally as red-eared terrapins commonly and Trachemys scripta elegans [from Latin ēlegāns, “elegant”] scientifically); yellow-bellied slider (Trachemys scripta scripta): John J. Mosesso/USGS NBII (National Biological Information Infrastructure), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

North American pond slider habitats are clayey, loamy, sandy, watery home ranges that accommodate autumn and spring mating and spring and summer nesting as well as water-bottom hibernators and winter nest-abiding hatchlings.

Cumberland (T. s. troosti) and red-eared (T. s. elegans) pond slider subspecies buttress the yellow-bellied species (T. scripta) and its first-named, nominate subspecies (T. s. scripta). Johann David Schoepff (March 8, 1752-Sep. 10, 1800) and Carl Peter Thunberg (Nov. 11, 1743-Aug. 8, 1828) in 1792 classified yellow-bellied pond slider species and subspecies. John Edwards Holbrook (Dec. 31, 1796-Sep. 8, 1871) in 1836 described the Cumberland subspecies, also designated Troost’s turtle, for Gerardus Troost (March 5, 1776-Aug. 14, 1850).

Prince Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied (Sep. 23, 1782-Feb. 3, 1867) in 1839 examined red-eared terrapins (Virginia Algonquian *tōrəp, “sea turtle” and Latin –īnus, “of” via English –ine).

March through June, June through July and July through September function as breeding, egg incubation and hatchling emergence months for Cumberland, red-eared and yellow-bellied pond sliders.

Sun-warmed logs and stumps goad Testudines (from Latin testūdō, “turtle” and Greek -ηνός via Latin –īnus, “of”) order members getting into body temperature-controlling side-by-sides and stack-ups. Pesticide-hounded, pollution-hurt invertebrate and plant prey harms Emydidae (from Greek ἐμύς, “freshwater tortoise” and -ειδής [“-like”] via Latin emys and -idæ) marsh-turtle, pond-turtle, terrapin family flesh. Their daytime itineraries include sun-warmed interludes for improved energy flow and muscle use and, despite elongated, flattened, land-unfriendly, untortoise-like, water-friendly webbed hindfeet, diurnal overland crawling intervals.

Collectors, developers, off-shore drillers, polluters and predatory birds, fish, frogs, opossums, otters, raccoons, skunks and snakes jeopardize 30-year life expectancies of North American pond slider habitats.

Physically and sexually mature, two- to five-, five-plus-year old males keep elongated, straightened fore-claws for elaborate courtship behaviors with mature, five- to eight-, eight-plus-year-old female sliders.

Females lay maximally five 4- to 23-egg, seasonal clutches in clayey, loamy or sandy, flask-shaped, 1- to 4-inch- (2.5- to 10.2-centimeter-) deep nests alongside water bodies. Birth nests may overwinter hatchlings from 1.2- to 1.7-inch (31- to 42-millimeter) by 0.7- to 1.0-inch (19- to 26-millimeter), oval, 60- to 80-day incubated, soft-shelled eggs. Omnivorous adults need aquatic vegetation such as duckweed and hyacinth; mixed, waterside greens such as dandelions; and, along with carnivorous juveniles, crayfish, earthworms, frogs and insects.

North American pond slider habitats offer season's coldest temperatures, north to southward, from minus 15 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 26.1 to minus 1.1 degrees Celsius).

South Carolina and Tennessee; Virginia through Mississippi; everywhere between Tennessee, panhandle Florida, New Mexico, Kansas and West Virginia preserve for subspecies North American pond slider habitats.

Brown-green, 5- to 11.5-inch- (12.5- to 29-centimeter-) long, oval, weak-ridged carapaces (from Spanish carapacho, “[tortoise’s upper-]shell” via French carapace) quarter eyelike yellow-spotted, mesh-like, transverse, yellow-barred patterns. Red eye-striped and yellow eye-blotched subspecies retain plastrons (from Greek ἐν-, “on” and πλάσσω, “to daub” via Latin emplastrum, “shield”), unlike unpatterned Cumberland lower-shells, dark-smudged yellow. Yellow-bellied subspecies show yellow-blotched upper-shell costal scutes (bony external plate, from Latin scūtum, “shield”) even as Cumberland, red-eared and yellow-bellied sliders all suffer from age-blackened heads.

Oval, weak-ridged, yellow-marked brown-gray upper-shells with round-chinned heads, 12-scuted sides, 12-scuted yellow lower-shells, v-notched upper jaws and webbed hind-feet troop through North American pond slider habitats.

The pond slider species Trachemys scripta adapts to mating-season temperature ranges between 72.5 and 80.6 degrees Fahrenheit (22.5 and 27 degrees Celsius) and around 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) that respectively account for more male than female hatchlings and allow more eggs appearing as female than male hatchlings. Such temperature ranges adjust female and male hatchling ratios among the Cumberland subspecies, Trachemys scripta troostii, in eastern Tennessee, northern Georgia and western South Carolina. They affect female and male hatchling ratios among red-eared sliders, Trachemys scripta elegans, in almost all Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas; all Arkansas and Louisiana; eastern New Mexico; half of Alabama, as regular but scattered populations northeast to northwest and southwest; northern and western Kentucky; southern Indiana, Pennsylvania and West Virginia; western Georgia and Tennessee; and westernmost panhandle Florida. They anticipate female and male hatchling ratios among first-named, nominate, yellow-bellied subspecies (Trachemys scripta scripta) members in almost all Georgia and South Carolina; eastern North Carolina; half of Alabama, as regular but scattered populations northeast to northwestward and southwestward; panhandle Florida; and southeasternmost Virginia; composite range map for three pond slider (Trachemys scripta) subspecies: U.S. Geological Survey Non-Indigenous Aquatic Species (USGS NAS), 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:

The appellation pond slider and pond slider turtle accommodates one species that arranges taxonomically into three subspecies. Yellow-bellied pond sliders act as species, Trachemys scripta (from Greek τρᾱχύς, “rough” and ἐμύς, “freshwater tortoise [Emys orbicularis, European pond turtle]” and from Latin scrīpta, “text, writing, written”), and as first-named, nominate subspecies, Trachemys scripta scripta. The species allows another two subspecies: Cumberland sliders (acknowledged additionally as Cumberland turtle and Troost’s turtle commonly and, for naturalist Gerardus Troost [March 5, 1776-Aug. 14, 1850], Trachemys scripta troostii scientifically); and red-eared sliders (acknowledged additionally as red-eared terrapins commonly and Trachemys scripta elegans [from Latin ēlegāns, “elegant”] scientifically); yellow-bellied slider (Trachemys scripta scripta): John J. Mosesso/USGS NBII (National Biological Information Infrastructure), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yellow-bellied_Slider_2.jpg

The pond slider species Trachemys scripta adapts to mating-season temperature ranges between 72.5 and 80.6 degrees Fahrenheit (22.5 and 27 degrees Celsius) and around 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) that respectively account for more male than female hatchlings and allow more eggs appearing as female than male hatchlings. Such temperature ranges adjust female and male hatchling ratios among the Cumberland subspecies, Trachemys scripta troostii, in eastern Tennessee, northern Georgia and western South Carolina. They affect female and male hatchling ratios among red-eared sliders, Trachemys scripta elegans, in almost all Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas; all Arkansas and Louisiana; eastern New Mexico; half of Alabama, as regular but scattered populations northeast to northwest and southwest; northern and western Kentucky; southern Indiana, Pennsylvania and West Virginia; western Georgia and Tennessee; and westernmost panhandle Florida. They anticipate female and male hatchling ratios among first-named, nominate, yellow-bellied subspecies (Trachemys scripta scripta) members in almost all Georgia and South Carolina; eastern North Carolina; half of Alabama, as regular but scattered populations northeast to northwestward and southwestward; panhandle Florida; and southeasternmost Virginia; composite range map for three pond slider (Trachemys scripta) subspecies: U.S. Geological Survey Non-Indigenous Aquatic Species (USGS NAS), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tracheymys_scripta_range.png

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. "Yellow-bellied Slider Trachemys scripta." Herps of NC > Amphibians and Reptiles of North Carolina > Turtles.
Available @ https://herpsofnc.org/yellow-bellied-slider/

Baker, Patrick J., Ph.D. 2003. "Pond Slider Trachemys scripta." 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.

Beane, Jeffrey C.; Alvin L. Braswell; Joseph C. Mitchell; William M. Palmer; and Julian R. Harrison III. 2010. "Yellow-bellied Slider Trachemys scripta." Page 174-175. In: Amphibians and Reptiles of the Carolinas and Virginia. With contributions by Bernard S. Martof and Joseph R. Bailey. Second Edition, Revised and Updated. Chapel Hill NC: The University of North Carolina.

Coy, Thomas. "Red-eared Slider Trachemys scripta elegans." Austins Turtle Page > Turtle Care > Care Sheets > U.S. Turtles > Sliders > Select.
Available @ http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/caresheet-red_ear_slider.htm

Coy, Thomas. "Yellow Bellied Slider." Austins Turtle Page > Turtle Care > Care Sheets > U.S. Turtles > Sliders > Select.
Available @ http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/cs-yellowbelly.htm

Hartweg, Norman. 1939. "A New American Pseudemys: Pseudemys scripta gaigeae, new subspecies." Occasional Papers of the Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan, no. 397 (Jan. 12, 1939): 1-4. Ann Arbor MI: University of Michigan Press.
Available via Deep Blue - University of Michigan Library @ https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/56836/OP397.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Holbrook, John Edwards. 1836. "Emys Troostii." North American Herpetology; Or, A Description of the Reptiles Inhabiting the United States. Vol. I: 55-58. Philadelphia PA: J. Dobson.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/4075475

Jugmohan, Kerryann. “Trachemys scripta (Red-eared Slider).” In: UWI The Online Guide to the Animals of Trinidad and Tobago Marisa Cornuartietis (Giant Ramshorn Snail). St Augustine, Trinidad: The University of the West Indies, 2015
Available @ https://sta.uwi.edu/fst/lifesciences/sites/default/files/lifesciences/documents/ogatt/Trachemys_scripta%20-%20Red-eared%20Slider.pdf

LeClere, Jeff. "Pond Slider (Trachemys scripta)." Amphibians and Reptiles of Iowa > Turtles > Turtles of Iowa.
Available @ http://www.herpnet.net/Iowa-Herpetology/reptiles/turtles/slider-trachemys-scripta/

Legler, John M. "Chapter 7. The Genus Pseudemys in Mesoamerica: Taxonomy, Distribution, and Origins: P.s. hartwegi." 90-91. In: Whitfield Gibbons, ed., Life History and Ecology of the Slider Turtle. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Available @ http://srelherp.uga.edu/SliderBook/Chapter7_Legler.PDF

"Pond Slider, Trachemys scripts." Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency > Wildlife/Biodiversity > Reptiles > Turtles in Tennessee.
Available @ https://www.tn.gov/twra/wildlife/reptiles/turtle/pond-slider.html

"Pond Slider Trachemys scripta." Indiana Herp Atlas > Turtles.
Available @ https://inherpatlas.org/species/trachemys_scripta

"Red-eared Slider (Trachemys scripta elegans)." Texas Parks & Wildlife Department > Wildlife > Wildlife Fact Sheets > Reptiles.
Available @ https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/species/slider/

Schoepff, Ioannis Davidis (Johan David). 1792. "Tab. III. Fig. 2. Testudo Scripta. Testudo scabra. Thunberg." Historia Testudinum Iconibus Illustrata: 16-17. Erlangae [Erlangen, Germany]: Ioannis Iacobi [Johann Jacob] Palm, clɔ Iɔ cclxxxxii.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/4214570
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/joannisdavidissc00sch#page/16/mode/1up

"Slider Turtle (Trachemys scripta)." University of Georgia > Savannah River Ecology Laboratory > Herpetology at SREL > Reptiles and Amphibians of SC and GA > Turtles of SC and GA.
Available @ https://srelherp.uga.edu/turtles/trascr.htm

"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. "Trachemys gaigeae (Hartweg, 1939)." Reptile Database.
Available @ http://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Trachemys&species=gaigeae&search_param=%28%28search%3D%27Trachemys+scripta%27%29%29

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

North American Stripe-Necked, Loggerhead Musk Turtle Habitats Abound

Summary: North American stripe-necked, loggerhead musk turtle habitats abound around pond, river, run, spring, stream, swamp and wetland burrows, crevices and logs.

loggerhead musk turtle (Sternotherus minor minor): theTurtleRoom.com @theTurtleRoom, via Facebook Dec. 30, 2013

North American stripe-necked, loggerhead musk turtle habitats abound around Alabama’s and Florida’s Choctawhatchee and Perdido, Florida’s Apalachicola, Georgia’s Altamaha and Ogeechee pond, river, run, spring, stream, swamp, wetland burrows, crevices and logs.

Loggerhead musk turtles bear their species common name because of big heads and bracing emissions and the subspecies common names loggerhead musk and stripe-necked musk turtles. They conserve Sternotherus minor minor and Sternotherus minor peltifer (from Greek στέρνον, “breastbone” and θηρίον, “beast” and Latin minor, “lesser” and peltifer, “shield-bearing”) subspecies scientific names. Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz (May 28, 1807-Dec. 14, 1873) scientifically described in 1857 Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana specimens of what developed taxonomically into Sternotherus minor species.

Donald Ward Tinkle (Dec. 3, 1930-Feb. 21, 1980) and Robert Gravem Webb (Feb. 10, 1927-Sep. 18, 2018) scientifically elucidated in 1955 first-named, loggerhead musk turtle subspecies.

Bryan Pettigrew Glass (Aug. 21, 1919-Aug. 27, 2010) and Hobart Muir Smith (Sep. 26, 1912-March 4, 2013) scientifically figured in 1947 second-named stripe-necked musk turtle subspecies.

The Testudines (from Latin testūdō, "turtle" and Greek -ηνός via Latin –īnus, “of”) true-turtle order member gets March-April, May-June-July and October-November-December-January-February-March-April-May-June breeding, egg-incubating and hatchling-emergence months. The Kinosternidae (from Greek κῑνέω, “I move” and στέρνον, “chest” and -ειδής, “-like” via Latin -idæ) family members’ two-paired musk glands hurtle horrible-colored, scented, textured secretions. It is possible for the musk glands to be activated and for the invasive secretions to be released by embryos within shells, hatchlings, juveniles and adults.

Water pollution, soil-runoff siltation, pet-trade collection, built environments and aggressive alligators, crows, opossums, raccoons, skunks, snakes, snapping turtles jeopardize North American stripe-necked, loggerhead musk turtle habitats.

Annual mating, nesting and parenting months keep 5- to 8-, 8-plus-year-old stripe-necked and loggerhead musk turtle females in 5-foot- (1.52-meter-) deep sand-piled nurseries along spring runs.

Adult female mates of 3- to 6-, 6-plus-year-old males’ lay 1 to 4 clutches of 2 to 3 blue-pink-white, brittle, elliptical, 1-1/8-inch (29-millimeter), porcelain-like, translucent eggs. Late-season mating below the water and nesting on sand sometimes means overwintered opaque white-matured eggs or overwintering hatchlings whose emergences manifest within 91 to 119 days. Beetles, millipedes and true bugs versus aquatic plants, beetles, clams, crayfish, mayflies, odonates, snails and stoneflies respectively nourish juvenile versus mature stripe-necked and loggerhead musk turtles.

North American stripe-necked, loggerhead musk turtle habitats offer season-coldest temperatures, from northernmost minus 10 to southernmost 30 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 23.3 to minus 1.1 degrees Celsius).

Stripe-necked and loggerhead musk turtles populate Kentucky and Virginia and North Carolina and Tennessee borders, eastern Mississippi, western South Carolina and the upper half of Florida.

Brown-orange, dark-spotted or dark-streaked, 3- to 5.25-inch- (7.5- to 13.5-centimeter-) long carapaces (upper-shells, from Spanish carapacho, “tortoise shell”) quarter dark-bordered seams and overlapping, plated, vertical scutes. Long-, spiny-tailed male and tiny-tailed female adults reveal barbeled (from Latin barba, “beard”) chins and plated plastrons (lower-shells, from Greek ἐν-, “on” and πλασσειν, “to plaster”). Both subspecies support oval, smooth upper-shells even as stripe-necked and loggerhead musk turtles respectively sustain one keel and striped necks and three ridges and dark-spotted heads.

North American stripe-necked, loggerhead musk turtle habitats track barbeled chins; dark-marked heads or necks; dark-marked, one-keeled or three-ridged, spiny- or tiny-tailed upper-shells; one-hinged, pink-yellow, plated lower-shells.

stripe-necked musk turtle (Sternotherus minor peltifer): Jen Y. Lamb, PhD @jenylamb, via Twitter April 4, 2015

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

loggerhead musk turtle (Sternotherus minor minor): theTurtleRoom.com @theTurtleRoom, via Facebook Dec. 30, 2013, @ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=815754031785079

stripe-necked musk turtle (Sternotherus minor peltifer): Jen Y. Lamb, PhD @jenylamb, via Twitter April 4, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/jenylamb/status/584580126639169536

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. "Stripe-necked Musk Turtle Sternotherus minor." Herps of NC > Amphibians and Reptiles of North Carolina > Turtles.
Available @ https://herpsofnc.org/stripe-necked-musk-turtle/

Agassiz, Louis. 1857. "Goniochelys minor, Ag." Contributions to the Natural History of the United States of America. Vol. I, Part II: 424. Boston MA: Little, Brown and Company; London, England: Trübner & Co.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/12852762

"American Mud and Musk Turtles (Kinosternidae)." Pages 121-123. 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, 2003.

Beane, Jeffrey C.; Alvin L. Braswell; Joseph C. Mitchell; William M. Palmer; and Julian R. Harrison III. 2010. "Stripe-necked Musk Turtle Sternotherus minor." Page 162. In: Amphibians and Reptiles of the Carolinas and Virginia. With contributions by Bernard S. Martof and Joseph R. Bailey. Second Edition, Revised and Updated. Chapel Hill NC: The University of North Carolina.

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

Dimas, Miranda. 2018. "Sternotherus minor Loggerhead Musk Turtle" (On-line). Animal Diversity Web. Ann Arbor MI: University of Michigan Museum of Zoology.
Available @ https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Sternotherus_minor/

Grimes, Evan. "Stripe-necked Musk Turtle Sternotherus peltifer." MS Herps > Reptiles and Amphibians of Mississippi > Turtles.
Available @ https://msherps.com/turtles/stripe-necked-musk-turtle/

Jen Y. Lamb, PhD ‏@jenylamb. 4 April 2015. "A male stripe neck musk turtle (Sternotherus minor peltifer) some of our grad students caught on Friday." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/jenylamb/status/584580126639169536

Partymiller, Lindsay. "Stripeneck / Loggerhead Musk Turtle (Sternotherus minor)." University of Georgia > Savannah River Ecology Laboratory > Herpetology at SREL > Reptiles and Amphibians of SC and GA > Turtles of SC and GA.
Available @ https://srelherp.uga.edu/turtles/stemin.htm

Selvaggio, Lisa. 22 November 2016. "Stripe-Necked Musk Turtle." PetGuide > Breeds > Turtle.
Available @ https://www.petguide.com/breeds/turtle/stripe-necked-musk-turtle/

Smith, Hobart M.; Bryan P. Glass. 1947. "A New Musk Turtle From Southeastern United States: Sternotherus peltifer, n. sp. Striped Musk Turtle." Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, vol. 37, no. 1 (Jan. 15, 1947): 22-24. Menasha WI: Washington Academy of Sciences.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/39698302

"Sternotherus minor peltifer Stripe-Necked Musk Turtle." NatureServe Explorer > Search > Species. Page Last Published: 8/5/2022.
Available @ https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.1006263/Sternotherus_minor_peltifer

"Stripe-Necked Musk Turtle." Virginia Deparment of Wildlife Resources > Wildlife & Habitat > Wildlife Information.
Available @ https://dwr.virginia.gov/wildlife/information/stripe-necked-musk-turtle/

"Stripe-necked Musk Turtle Sternotherus minor." iNaturalist > Guides > Reptiles of Alabama.
Available @ https://www.inaturalist.org/guide_taxa/393480

"Stripe-necked Musk Turtle Sternotherus minor peltifer." Virginia Herpetological Society > Animals > Reptiles > Turtles.
Available @ https://www.virginiaherpetologicalsociety.com/reptiles/turtles/striped-necked-musk-turtle/stripe-necked_musk_turtle.php

"Striped-Necked Musk Turtle, Sternotherus minor." Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency > Wildlife/Biodiversity > Reptiles > Turtles in Tennessee.
Available @ https://www.tn.gov/twra/wildlife/reptiles/turtle/striped-necked-musk-turtle.html

theTurtleRoom.com @theTurtleRoom. 30 December 2013. "Sternotherus minor minor - Excellent turtles, brilliant for anyone starting out in the hobby. So full of character, like this little one peeking over the mopani wood in her enclosure. #muskturtle #turtle #theTurtleRoom." Twitter.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=815754031785079

"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/

Tinkle, Donald W.; and Robert G. Webb. 1955. "A New Species of Sternotherus With a Discussion of the Sternotherus Carinatus Complex." Tulane Studies in Zoology 3(3): 53-67.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2816428

Uetz, Peter. "Sternotherus minor (Agassiz, 1857)." Reptile Database.
Available @ http://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Sternotherus&species=minor&search_param=%28%28genus%3D%27Sternotherus%27%29%29

Uetz, Peter. "Sternotherus peltifer (Smith & Glass, 1947)." Reptile Database.
Available @ http://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Sternotherus&species=peltifer&search_param=%28%28genus%3D%27Sternotherus%27%29%29

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) - Gap Analysis Project (GAP). 2018. "Loggerhead Musk Turtle (Sternotherus minor) rLMTUx_CONUS_2001v1 Range Map: U.S. Geological Survey data release.
Available @ https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/59f5e1cee4b063d5d307db03

van Dijk, P.P. 2022. Sternotherus minor (errata version published in 2016)." The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2011. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2011-1.RLTS.T170493A6781671.en
Available @ https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/170493/97384102