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I am an Eagle Scout and the creator of B&H's Turtle Site, a website about turtles.
Southern Illinois
Sign In to followPainted Turtles and Red Ears cannot mate together they are to distantly related to produce offspring. However the two turtles are very similar down to their tendencies and mating rituals. Some turtles can cross breed and create hybrid turtles but you are much more likely to have cross breeding between subspecies instead of species, as in this case Red Ear Slider and Yellow Bellied Slider. In Painted Turtles it would be mating between Eastern, Southern, Western and Midland subspecies. You can find other hybrids like a Ouachita Map Turtle and Red Ear Slider hybrid around for sale sometimes but I think they may be infertile if I remember correctly.
I think this turtle is a hybrid between a Red Ear Slider and a Yellow Bellied Slider. It has the red supra-temporal marking of the RES but the yellow facial markings of a YBS.
It looks like a nymph of some Assassin Bug species.
Looks like a good sized female.
Cool! I thought it looked like some kind of Amazonian River Turtle.
Maybe a Giant Amazon River Turtle (Podocnemis expansa)?
Yes location and markings helped me differentiate what subspecies it is. Easter Painted Turtles have a light colored border that goes around the edge of the scutes on the carapace.
That's a good looking Eastern Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta picta)!
This one is of the eastern subspecies, Chrysemys picta picta.
Wow! You caught them mating, that is a rare sight to stumble across!