1 18 Michael E. Seidel and William M. Palmer 



range of P. rubriventris on PC II and within the range of P. floridana, 

 they were reidentified as P. floridana. Another male specimen (NCSM 

 28704) from the same general area (Beaufort Co., N.C.) had been 

 tentatively identified as P. floridana, but because it plotted within the 

 range of P. rubriventris on PC II, it was reassigned to the latter species 

 for further analysis. 



Discriminant analysis of male and female Pseudemys also revealed 

 marked separation between P. rubriventris and the other two congeners 

 (Fig. 8 and 9). Eighty-eight percent (females) and ninety-four percent 

 (males) of the variance was explained by the first discriminant function 

 (DF 1). Coefficients for the most influential characters are listed in 

 Table 2. Although differences (P<0.05) were found between all three 

 species, significance values were much larger comparing P. rubriventris 

 with P. concinna and P. floridana {F - 18-42) than comparing P. 

 concinna with P. floridana (F '= 3.0 and 6.9). For males, 100% of the P. 

 rubriventris were classified (by group discriminant function) correctly, 

 whereas there was a 17-18% classification error between P. concinna 

 and P. floridana. For females, 87% of the P. rubriventris, 78% of the P. 

 concinna, and 80% of the P. floridana were correctly grouped. 



Table 2. Coefficients and factor loadings for the most influential morphometric 

 characters of discriminant analysis (DF 1) and principal components analysis 

 (PC II). 







DF 1 



PC II 





MALE 



FEMALE 



MALE 



FEMALE 



Plastron length (PL) 



0.33 









Cervical scute dorsal 











length (CS) 







0.17 



0.17 



Cervical scute ventral 











length (CU) 





-0.40 



0.26 



0.30 



Marginal scute XII 











length (MH) 



0.41 



0.42 







Lateral angle of carapace (SA) 



-0.29 





0.24 



0.25 



Anal notch depth (AN) 







-0.15 



-0.20 



Taper (angle) of anal 











scutes (AA) 



-0.42 



0.44 



0.33 



Ventral posterior extension 











of carapace (AP) 





0.57 



-0.18 



-0.15 



Length of tomial cusps (LC) 



0.91 



-0.45 



0.42 



0.45 



Supratemporal stripe 











width (SS) 





0.54 



-0.43 



-0.41 



Post-symphyseal stripe 











width (GS) 







-0.31 



-0.41 



