Marbled Salamander Features Labeled

Adults can grow to about 11 cm 4 in small compared to other members of its genus.

Marbled salamander features labeled.

The bands of females tend to be gray while those of males are more white. The marbled salamander mates and lays its eggs on land. The marbled salamander is a stocky boldly banded salamander. Ephotozine the web s friendliest photography community.

Eggs are laid in the fall under coarse woody debris while the pools are dry. They are locally common on the trap rock ridges of the central connecticut lowland. Marbled salamanders are one of only two ambystoma salamander species that breeds and lays its eggs on land. Mark urban cc by.

The marbled salamander breeds from september to october in the northern part of its range and from october to december in the southern part of its range. Ambystoma opacum the marbled salamander is found throughout most of the eastern united states from massachusetts west to central illinois southeastern missouri and oklahoma and eastern texas south to the gulf of mexico and the carolina coast it is absent from peninsular florida. These salamanders are widely distributed in connecticut but absent from high elevations above 1 100 feet. Most michigan salamanders begin breeding in the spring months with a few exceptions.

From late september through october the adults migrate at night to edges of forested vernal ponds which typically dry up during the summer. Disjunct populations are found in eastern missouri central illinois in northwest ohio. Habitat photo for marbled salamander courtesy of rebecca chalmers. The marbled salamander is in the family abystomatidae which includes the large stout bodied mole salamanders.

Marbled salamanders are keystone predators in new england ponds but adaptation by the smaller spotted salamander can dramatically change the composition of the ponds. The female lays 50 200 eggs one at a time in a depression under a log or in a clump of vegetation that will fill with water when it. September is the peak breeding period in massachusetts for one of its most attractive yet unorthodox amphibian species the marbled salamander ambystoma opacum during rainy foggy or very humid nights adults emerge from underground burrows in the forest and migrate overland to swamps and vernal pools to breed and deposit eggs. Female guards the eggs until pool is flooded.

Like most of the mole salamanders it is secretive spending most of its life under logs or in burrows. These include the marbled salamander and the mudpuppy which breed in the fall the four toed salamander that breeds in late summer and fall and the red backed salamander which breeds in the fall through winter and early spring in some places.