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B coloration of animals is a complex morphological trait produced by biochemical and biophysical interactions under genetic control, which can be triggered by environmental influences (Brejcha et al., 2019, Rowe et al., 2006). Conspicuous body colours may signal vital information both between and within species, including sexual selection, mate recognition, conspecific identification, kin recognition, and predator deterrence (McGaugh, 2008) while pigmentation resulting in background-matching helps camouflage (McGaugh, 2008, Reinke et al., 2017, Rowe et al., 2014). Histological and physiological processes of colour production as well as environmental determinants of colour variations have been substantially explored among emydid turtles (Brejcha et al., 2019, McGaugh, 2008, Rowe et al., 2014). These turtles develop variable colours by assimilating dissolved substances from their aquatic environments (Rowe et al., 2016, Rowe et al., 2013). Mostly limited to anecdotal accounts, such observations are rarely documented in the scientific literature. The colour variations among emydids occur particularly on their limbs, head, carapace, and plastron. Here, we documented the presence of multiple plastron colour variations in the eastern painted turtles, Chrysemys picta picta (Schneider, 1783). This species is among the most common and widely distributed chelonian of North America, ranging from southern Canada to northern Mexico, and occupies a diverse range of freshwater and wetland habitats such as ponds, lakes, rivers, streams, freshwater marshes, forested and scrub swamps (Ernst, 1971; Ernst & Lovich, 2009). At Mass Audubon’s Tidmarsh Wildlife Sanctuary, Plymouth Massachusetts, USA, we documented different plastron colorations among different individuals of C. p. picta. Yellow and red stripes on legs, and the prominent yellow spot behind the eye, were the identification features we used. Turtles were captured on 24 June 2018 and on four occasions between 7-26 June 2019 via large Promar Collapsible Minnow Traps deployed at a coastal, low-gradient headwater wetland (41.90117°S, -70.57131°W, WGS 84, 3.96 m elev.) where the substrate was a thick layer of decomposing vegetation, peat, and slit. The study site was formally a cranberry farm, now restored into a wetland-aquatic habitat complex. We captured three turtles with black plastrons where the typical plain-yellow coloration was only visible along the plastron sutures (Fig. 1). The black colour extended SHORT COMMUNICATION The Herpetological Bulletin 150, 2019: 23-25

Variable plastron coloration of the eastern painted turtles Chrysemys picta picta in a single locality of south-eastern Massachusetts, USA