Even when half grown the patterns and colors of most yellow-bellied sliders is bright and precise.
Worry not! Populations of the yellow-bellied slider are alive and well. It is only the ongoing name games between geneticists and Linnaean biologists that have dictated the changes, shrunken the realm, if you will, of this venerable, wide spread, and well known turtle.

At one time, in one subspecies or the other, Trachemys (once Pseudemys) scripta ranged from our northern tier states southward through Mexico and Central America, and across South America to Argentina. There were then 16 subspecies. Since those early days, varying by authority and their outlook on taxonomy (and their need for a paper), the number of species and subspecies has yo-yoed radically with some researchers elevating a subspecies to full species status while another sinks the creature in question into taxonomic synonymy. The good thing about all of these changes is that they are only on paper, except for those sacrificed during research, the turtles themselves not giving a hoot.

What once was: USA; Was T. scripta scripta, yellow-bellied slider, still valid; was T. s. elegans, red eared slider, still valid; was T. s. troosti, Cumberland slider, still valid; was T. s. gaigeae, now T. gaigeae, Big Bend slider.

Mexico and Central America: Was T. s. venusta, now T. venusta venusta, Meso-American slider; was T. s. cataspila, now T. venusta cataspila, Huastecan slider.

Was T.s nebulosa, now T. nebulosa nebulosa, Baja California slider; was T. s. hiltoni, now T. nebulosa hiltoni, Rio Fuerte slider; was T. s. ornata, now T. nebulosa ornata, Ornate slider.

Was T. s. grayi, now T. grayi, Guatemalan slider; was T. s. yaquia, now T. yaquia, Yaqui slider; was T. s. taylori, now T. taylori, Cuatro Cienegas slider; was T. s. emolli, now T. emolli, Nicaraguan slider.

South America: Was T. s. callirostris, now T. callirostris callirostris, Colombian slider; was T. s. chichiriviche, now T. callirostris chichiriviche, Venezulan slider.

Was T. s. dorbigni, now T. dorbigni dorbigni, Southern D’Orbigny’s slider; was not originally designated, now T. dorbigni braziliensis, Brazilian slider.
So, if we exclude the many introduced and established populations of the red-eared slider, we see that the taxonomic realm of the Trachemys scripta has been reduced from much of the new world to only the USA, a significant change indeed—or not. Just sayin’.

Big and voracious! Meet the 3-toed Amphiuma.
Two of the 3 described species of Amphiuma (amphiuma is the accepted common name as well as the genus name for this group of “mud eels”) reside in Florida waters. The 3rd species A. tridactylum, the three-toed amphiuma, comes within a few miles of Florida’s northeastern panhandle but has not yet been verified in the Sunshine State. It is found from eTX to seAL and northward in the Mississippi River Valley to extreme seMO.

This mud eel is a big amphibian. It occasionally attains a length of 40 inches (but is usually under 3 feet long) and attains a quite considerable girth. The dorsum is grayish brown and is sharply delineated friom the much lighter gray belly. Excluding the light lower jawbone, the throat is dark gray.

That this is a hardy creature was shown by one kept in a high school classroom for nearly 2 decades by a friend. Although he made an effort to feed it correctly, students would frequently give it parts of their sandwiches. It ate these ravenously. It was also an accomplished killer of mice, eagerly accepting the occasional white mouse offered. Bill told me that it had never bitten a student, but it was not for lack of trying.

All in all, this was (and is) quite a salamander!

It took the combined scrutiny of Jake and me to find this adult male bog frog in its grassy home.
In 1985 the Florida bog frog, Rana okaloosae, Florida’s smallest ranid frog was described by Paul Moler. Adult at about 2” svl, because of its unique call (a repetitive single note) this tiny greenish ranid was found in a small creek on Eglin AFB in 1982 by Moler. It is known from a few dozen small populations in Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, and Walton counties. Florida.

In overall appearance the bog frog is quite similar to the common and widespread bronze frog, Rana clamitans. However from the latter the bog frog differs in having very reduced webbing on the hind feet, lacking a central raised area on the tympani, and the dorsolateral folds, lighter in color than the dorsum, terminate just posterior to the sacral hump. Since all other ranid frogs are considerably bigger than the bog frog when adult, size can also be an identifying factor.

It had been about 10 years since I had last looked this little frog up, but with the help of Paul Moler, and the calling of the frogs, Jake and I were able to find a small population and update our photos. Thanks, Paul.

The 2 dark lines that define this subspecies are easily seen on this young example.
Although softshelled turtles hadn’t figured into our stop on the Pascagoula River, Jake and I were both delighted when we saw a female Gulf Coast spiny softshell, Apalone spinifera aspera, sunning on a snag near the shore. That it was a female was obvious from the heavily pigmented carapace. Not large as females go—the record is about 17 ½”—this female was about 9 inches in shell length. The much smaller males seem to top out at about 8 ½ “ carapace length and are often 1 or 2” smaller.

This subspecies ranges from eNC to seLA. It is found in extreme nFL, where I have seen it in the rivers in the Apalachicola National Forest.

This subspecies differs from all other subspecies of Apalone spinifera in having 2 (rather than just one) lines paralleling the rear of the carapace. Very visible in young example and males, the lines may be difficult to see on heavily pigmented adult females.

An Alabama map turtle--but not one that I found!
Our destinations on Sunday were access points to the Tombigbee River and If we failed to find Alabama map turtles, Graptemys pulchra) and northern black-knobbed sawbacks, G. n. nigrinoda, there to continue eastward to the Alabama River where we would again try our luck.

Similar to the other sawbacks, G, n. nigrinoda ranges from 3 to 8” in shell length. Males are only about half the size of the females. We had no trouble at all finding tis species on both the Tombigbee and, later, the Alabama rivers. On the other hand, the broad-headed Alabama map turtle, the second largest of this group with females nearing a 12” shell length, has proven tough.

When it was thought that the Alabama map turtle ranged from mid-AL to the Pearl River drainage in MS, I had no trouble finding them. But now that the western forms (the Pascagoula map and the Pearl River map) have become full species, I have had no luck at all in finding the real, remaining, population of the Alabama map turtle. This search was no exception—at least for me. I found none. But Jake scored again. He, after clambering 50 yards over an almost vertical rockface and teetering back and forth while photographing, actually got fuzzy pix of 2 G. pulchra in the river below his perch.

But another trip is forthcoming and the next time success WILL be mine (LOL).

The carapacial markings of the ringed sawback are often obscured by accumulated silt.
Typical of many of the jaunts that Jake and I embark on, this trip had morphed from a frog search that would have taken us on a round trip of about 700 miles to a frog AND turtle hunt that now would carry us close to 3500 miles. The Pearl River forms the LA-MS state line in the south and extends far into MS as it meanders northward. It is the home of the beautiful little ringed sawback, Graptemys oculifera, and the marginally larger, broad-headed Pearl River map turtle, Graptemys pearlensis, a species that can be difficult to find. Again, based on temporal blotch shape and genetics, the latter once considered the westernmost population of the Pascagoula map turtle is now a full species. Both taxa range from 3 to 8 1/2” in length; again females are the larger.

On our first access to the Pearl (late in the afternoon) we were able to see several ringed sawbacks on a nearby snag and the next day, from a very high and busy bridge, we saw a dozen or so more. It was at this 2nd vantage point that Jake succeeded in finding his “twofer”, finding 2 Pearl River maps among the ringed sawbacks while I, on the opposite end of the bridge, failed. But since I had seen them on an earlier trip, all was not lost.

What now? Back eastward and a bit northward to try for 1 species and 1 subspecies that we had missed on our run westward. And off we went.

The yellow-blotched map turtle is another aptly named beauty.
Navigator Jake takes his direction giving seriously. With the map turtle atlas open on his lap, he sought directions from both the GPS and his cellphone.

OK—go west, next left, next right, 2nd left, next left… and magically, just ahead of us was a bridge. We had reached the Pascagoula or at least one of its tributaries and as we looked down from the bridge we saw yellow-blotched sawbacks on every snag. And then, a bit upriver we saw 3 big map turtles, the two largest of which had BIG heads and were watching us with great interest. Map turtles are wary—very wary, and we hastened to take as many pix as we were able before the chelonians decided we were a threat and dove from their basking stations.

But we had succeeded. That stop had produced the “twofer” we had hoped for—the yellow-blotched map turtle, Graptemys flavimaculata, a sawbacked species (3-7” females the larger), and the Pascagoula map turtle, Graptemys gibbonsi, one of the broad-headed species (3-8 ½”, females the larger).

Based on temporal marking shape and genetic differences the Pascagoula map turtle, also referred to as Gibbon’s map turtle, was rather recently split away from the Alabama map.

“Where next?” Jake asked.

He looked unconvinced at my response, “the Pearl River.”

But within moments he had reassumed his navigator stance and it was westward, Ho!