The Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta) is a complex of four subspecies: the Eastern Painted Turtle (C. p. picta), the Midland Painted Turtle (C. p. marginata), the Southern Painted Turtle (C. p. dorsalis) and the Western Painted Turtle (C. p. belli). The subspecies differ in colour pattern and alignment of the scutes of the carapace.Nova Scotia's Painted Turtles have characteristics of both the Eastern and Midland Painted Turtle.
In Canada, the Eastern Painted Turtle is found in mainland Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. In N. S., it is common to abundant in the southwestern mainland, becoming locally common or absent on the norteastern mainland. The range extends south to Alabama.
Size: for 46 adults measured in Kejimkujik National Park in southwestern Nova Scotia, the carapace length of males was 13.1 to 16.5 cm, and females 14.3 to 17.1 cm.
They inhabit vegetated ponds, lakes and streams, and seem to be most common where lily pads and pickerel weed grow.
They hibernate at the bottom of ponds.
Females migrate to sand or gravel beaches , roadbanks or cultivated fields during the afternoons, from early June to early July, to dig a nest and lay eggs.
Females lay between 6 and 11 eggs yearly (based on counts of 23 animals).
Hatchlings emerge from the nest between late September and the end of October. If the nest surface temperature becomes lower than the temperature at the bottom of the nest, they will overwinter and dig out the following spring.
They are generally active in day, but have been seen resting embedded like beach stones in a lake bottom in daytime, and also feeding at nightime.
They eat a variety of aquatic insects, their larvae or nymphs and other invertebrates, particularly snails, and small pieces of lily pads.