Mississippi Map Turtle (Graptemys kohnii)

Mississippi Map Turtle
Photograph by Burnopfielder1. License: Public Domain. (view image details)

MISSISSIPPI MAP TURTLE FACTS

Description
The Mississippi Map Turtle is brown with fine gray and yellowish markings. It has stripes on the neck and crescent shaped light spots behind the eyes, which stop the neck stripes from reaching the eye. The skin is olive to brown with narrow yellow stripes along the legs, tail, chin and neck. The eye is white. Females are considerably larger than males. The Mississippi Map Turtle is very similar to the False Map Turtle (Graptemys pseudogeographica pseudogeographica), and is considered by some sources as a subspecies of Graptemys pseudogeographica (Graptemys pseudogeographica kohnii).

Size
length: males 9cm - 14cm; females 15cm - 25cm

Environment
rivers, large creeks with aquatic vegetation. Found in deep and fast moving water.

Food
mollusks, insects, small fish

Breeding
Nests from May to July. Female lays 2 to 22 eggs in nest dug on bank or beach.

Range
Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas along the Missouri, Mississippi, and Ohio rivers to North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana.

Classification

Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Testudines
Family:	Emydidae
Genus:	Graptemys
Species:	kohnii
Common Name:	Mississippi Map Turtle

Relatives in same Genus
  Barbour's Map Turtle (G. barbouri)
  Common Map Turtle (G. geographica)
  Black knobbed Map Turtle (G. nigrinoda)
  False Map Turtle (G. pseudogeographica)
  Alabama Map Turtle (G. pulchra)

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