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Testudines Kinosternon subrubrum -- Eastern Mud Turtle
Purple shade indicates vouchered specimens. Light blue (cyan)
shade indicates photographic records. Yellow shade indicates verified
sighting. Slanted hatch indicates pre-1980 records only
NOTE: Not all specimens upon which these maps are based have been verified.
Key Characters: Tenth marginal scute highest; eighth and ninth marginal scutes rectangluar and of equal height; triangular pectoral scutes barely in contact; plastron hinged anterior and posterior to abdominal scute.
Similar Species: Yellow mud turtle, common musk turtle.
Subspecies: Intergradation between the Eastern mud turtle, K. s. subrubrum, and the mississippi mud turtle, K. s. hippocrepis.
Description: Small (12 cm CL) turtle with dull brown capapace, scutes somtiems dark bordered. Sides of head spotted or mottled with yellow. Plastron dark brown or tan. Male has divided patch of rough scales behind knee and a larger swollen tail tipped with a claw. Hatchling tiny (2.0 - 2.5 cm CL) with a dark carapace and an orange, red, or yellow plastron bearing an extensive patch of park pigment.
Habitat: Shallow stagnant or slow-moving habitats: wetlands, backwaters, oxbows, cypress swamps. Frequents temporary water, wanders overland.
Natural History: Omnivorous, forages along bottom in shallows for mollusks, crustaceans, insects, and plants. Lays 2 - 5 ellipsoidal (ca. 30 x 17 mm), brittle-shelled eggs in and under debris or in burrows excavated using the front and hind limbs. Commonly estivates and hibernates in borrows on land.
Status: Uncommon. Drainage of woodland ponds and wetlands in the southern tip of the state constitutes and important threat.