Spotted Salamander

Key Characteristics: Blackish or grayish with two rows of yellow spots on back.

Adults: Adult Spotted Salamanders are black, dark brown, or gray above with two rows of yellow spots running along the back from the top of the head to the tail. Sometimes the spots on the head are orange. The belly is normally unspotted and grayish in color. Adult Spotted Salamanders have 11-13 costal grooves.

Larvae: When the larvae reach greater than 4 cm in length, they are greenish gray to brown with small yellowish spots along the side and have a grayish, yellow-mottled tail fin. When newly transformed Spotted Salamanders are dark gray or brown above with greenish yellow flecks along the back and dull yellow or tan on the belly. The characteristic yellow spots develop by the time the young are 6 cm. long.

Eggs: Up to 200 dark colored embryos encased in a yolk sac and all surrounded in a gelatinous "blob." A symbiotic relationship exsists between an algae and the egg mass providing food for the developing salamanders.

Distribution: Spotted Salamanders are common throughout the eastern United States and Canada. In western New York they are abundant in the Allegany Uplands but uncommon along the Great Lakes Plain. Spotted Salamander populations rapidly decline as woodlands are cleared or disturbed.

Habitat: Spotted Salamanders occur in moist closed-canopy mixed or deciduous forest. They are typically found in lowland forest but can tolerate moderately dry upland conditions as well. These salamanders are less common in swamp forests that are subject to frequent flooding.

Ecology: Spotted Salamanders are rarely seen above ground outside of the breeding season. They spend much of their time in tunnels underground Ñ usually in modified burrows dug by other animals Ñ but can be found in and under moist rotten logs, rocks, or leaf litter almost any time of the year. They hibernate underground, usually close to breeding ponds. Spotted Salamanders may disappear from fragmented or otherwise disturbed landscapes. Vernal pools are a critical component of their habitat. Adults eat snails, slugs, worms, insects, spiders and other invertebrates. Larvae eat aquatic invertebrates such as crustaceans, insect larvae, mollusks, and occasionally small invertebrates such as small fish and the larvae of other amphibians.

Reproduction: Spotted Salamanders congregate at their breeding ponds in March and April, depending on local weather conditions. Migration typically commences on a warm, rainy evening after the ground has thawed. Spotted Salamanders usually arrive at the pond several days after the arrival of Jefferson and Blue-spotted Salamanders.

Adults often return to the same pond year after year and appear to travel to and from the pond using the same routes much of the time.