The family Emydidae is comprised of 10 genera and 35 species (Pough et al. 1998).  They are mainly distributed throughout much of North America, with the exception of one genus found in South America and a second genus found in parts of Africa, Asia and Europe.  The Emydidae species in Idaho Chrysemys picta (Painted Turtle) is largely aquatic (Stebbins, 1985), however, this family also has terrestrial representatives such as the genus Terrapene or Box Turtles  (Pough et al. 1998).