Midorigame: Common slider

In Japan,Midorigame are sold in the stall at the festival. They are sold in the pet shop, and kept at a lot of homes. Midorigame in Japanese is called Common slider in English. Common slider of the scientific name is Trachemys scripta.Trachemys means Akamimigame in Japanese. In other words, Midorigame is Akamimigame.

It included 14 subspecies until recent years, but the current theory is that are 3 subspecies, further divided into 11 subspecies. These 3 subspecies are Red-eared slider and Cumberland slider, Yellow-bellied slider. Red eared slider’s scientific name is Trachemys scripta elegans. Cumberland slider’s scientific name is Trachemys scripta troostil . Yellow-bellied slider’s scientific name is Trachemys scripta scripta.

Midorigame’s natural distribution in the United States (Arkansas state , Illinois state, Indiana state, Oklahoma state, Ohio state, southeastern part in Kansas, Texas state, eastern part of New Mexico state, southern part of Michigan, and Mississippi state, Missouri state, and Louisiana state), and Mexico ( Coahuila state northe eastern , southern part in Taman lipase , and Nuevo Leon state northern part).

Common sliders biggest back size is 28 cm. Females are larger than males . The back plate is a little flat or an egg type wide and a little rising like the dome , when you see it. The deck is a trapezoid as it is long and slender. The first intervertebral deck length is equal to the width. The width of the 2-5 th intervertebral deck is longer . Moreover, it disappears in an aged individual though there is an upsurge of the stripe (keel) that does not so much in the intervertebral deck , The outside edge of the back edge deck is pointed out a little like a saw . Yellow lateral stripes enter the rib back . The color of the abdomen is yellow .The head size is medium. The mouth end projects a little , and the point of the upper jaw dents slightly . Limbs are strong .Yellow vertical stripes enter the parietal region at the mouth end .

Common sliders live in a gentle river, the lake, and the pond marsh. And it likes a gentle stream region and dead water region of the flow to which the hydrophyte grows thickly. It hibernates in water when winter comes.

It eats plant leaf, flower, fruits, waterplant, algae, fishes, frogs, the larva, and aquatic snake, birds, insects, spiders, and crustacean, shellfishes, earthworm and animal’s corpses. Its life expectancy 25-40 years and character is active a violent temper .

If you would like to walk in a river , a lake and a pond , you can see common sliders. In Kochi, when you go a festival or you go a pet shop , you can see Midorigame.