Hibernates about two weeks earlier than eastern box turtle, and emerges in spring about two weeks later. Female lays one or more clutches of 4-6 ellipsoidal, relatively hard-shelled eggs (ca. Eats mainly insects, but also snails, earthworms, tadpoles, bird eggs and hatchlings, and carrion. Natural History: Tends to be more carnivorous than eastern box turtle, but eats some vegetation. Habitat: Sand prairies of central and northern Illinois, Southern Tillplain prairies (clay soil outlier prairies) and open fields in former prairie. Older adults tend to have widely flaring marginals (Smith, 1961, Illinois Natural History Survey Bulletin 28. Hatchling resembles adult, but yellow markings are more like spots than lines. Smith (1961) noted that approximately 30% of the males he examined (n =14) from the sand prairies of central and northern Illinois had uniformly green or blue heads, while only 5% of the 44 specimens from the southern outlier prairies had this bizarre head coloring. Male differs from female by having slightly concave plastron, red rather than brown eyes, more posteriorly located anus, and sharply recurved first claw of the hindfoot. Plastron patterned with yellow lines on dark scutes. ornata inhabits Illinois.Äescription: A medium-sized (up to 13 cm CL) terrestrial turtle with dark brown carapace, yellow midback stripe and yellow lines radiating from center of each scute (6-8 lines per pleural scute). luteola, Smith and Ramsey, 1952 (Wasmann J. Subspecies: Two subspecies are currently recognized Plains Box Turtle, T. The Blanding’s Turtle, Emydoidea blandingii, is much larger, has has a yellow plastron with a black blotch on the distal portion of each plastral plate (some older individuals may have a predominantly black plastron), and a yellow throat. See Key to Illinois Turtles for help with identification. carolina, is generally larger, has a more domed carapace with a vertebral keel, and has a plain plastron without straight yellow lines. Similar Species: The Eastern Box Turtle, T. Key Characters: Moderately high carapace flattened along midline and without keel hinged plastron patterned with yellow lines radiating from center of each scute. Terrapene ornata (Agassiz, 1857) Ornate Box Turtle, Jasper Co., IL.
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