Marbled salamander

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Marbled salamander
Marbled salamander (14367751333).jpg

Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification edit
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Urodela
Family: Ambystomatidae
Genus: Ambystoma
Species:
A. opacum
Binomial name
Ambystoma opacum
(Gravenhorst, 1807)

The marbled salamander (Ambystoma opacum) is a species of mole salamander found in the eastern United States.

Description[]

The marbled salamander is a stocky and boldly banded salamander. The bands of females tend to be gray, while those of males are more white. Adults can grow to about 11 cm (4 in), small compared to other members of its genus. Like most of the mole salamanders, it is secretive, spending most of its life under logs or in burrows.

Habitat and range[]

Marbled salamanders are found in the eastern United States, from southern New England to northern Florida, and west to Illinois and Texas. They have been found as far north as New Hampshire, though only two sightings have been reported there. Their habitats are damp woodlands, forests, and places with soft and wet soil. Seasonally flooded areas are essential for breeding, but the salamanders do not normally enter the water. Like many salamanders, marbled salamanders have poison glands to deter predators.[2]

The marbled salamander is the state salamander of North Carolina.[3]

Lifecycle and reproduction[]

Lifecycle[]

An adult marbled salamander.

The first months that Marbled Salamanders spend living out of the water are the most important in determining how many will survive until the next breeding season.[4] Marbled Salamanders are not strong burrowers, therefore they rely on existing holes in the ground for shelter.[4] Desiccation, heat stress, soil moisture, temperature, and pH are all important factors in determining if a Marbled Salamander will survive.[4] Chances of survival are low for Marbled Salamanders who travel through fields, however, they have been observed to traverse fields in order to find other pond areas.[4] Marbled Salamanders survive best in a forest habitat, compared to an open field.[5][4] Protecting wetlands is key to the survival of this species.[5] Conservationists recommend leaving a buffer zone of forest around wetlands to increase survivorship of Marbled Salamanders.[4]

Adults spend most of their time in their burrows or under logs, as is the case with most mole salamanders. Juvenile marbled salamanders hatch early compared to most salamanders and gain a size advantage by feeding and growing for several months before the Jefferson salamanders and spotted salamanders hatch later in the spring. Larvae typically mature as quickly as two months in the southern part of their range, but take up to six months to mature in the northern part. Marbled salamanders, like other members of this genus, are reported to have relatively long life spans, 8–10 years or more.

Reproduction[]

Courtship of this species takes place on land. The males will compete by butting heads and blocking another male’s movement with its tail. When courting the female, a male will nudge the vent of a female with its snout, with the intent that the female will respond in kind. This back-and-forth nudging has the appearance of a dance as the two salamanders circle around one another. This display culminates with the male depositing a spermatophore and the female moving to take it into her cloaca. The female will then lay between 50 and 200 eggs, often remaining with them until the nest floods.[6]

However, it has been observed that females may abandon their eggs before flooding occurs.[7] Female Marbled Salamanders have a very low attachment to their eggs, and they will abandon their nest after a disturbance.[7] They have also been observed to abandon undisturbed nests.[7] When the mother leaves the nest, she leaves the eggs vulnerable to predation by other salamanders, frogs, and beetles.[7]

Reproductive success is highly variable for the Marbled Salamander.[5] Some years many juveniles will survive, while other years the breeding population may experience a catastrophic failure, and very few juveniles will survive.[5] These catastrophic failures occur randomly, but it has been found that they are mainly influenced by the length of the hydroperiod.[5] A short hydroperiod is the main cause of catastrophic failure.[5] Because Marbled Salamanders have relatively long life spans, their chances of extinction due to catastrophic failure are low.[5] If they do not breed successfully one year, they will be alive the next year to try again.[5] However, if there are other complications affecting their survival, the possibility of a catastrophic failure poses a larger threat to the overall population.[5] Surviving on land, outside of the reproduction season, is very important to keep the population stable.[5]

While most Marbled Salamanders return to the pond where they were born to breed, some may travel over 1,000 meters to locate a new pond to breed.[8] This often occurs when their natal pond has a small population that may not have a large selection of mates.[8] This dispersal helps populations of Marbled Salamanders to avoid genetic problems, by introducing new genes into the population.[8] This dispersal also means that it is important to view these populations as a larger metapopulation, rather than focusing simply on a single wetland area.[8]

Feeding[]

Adult female with eggs (Florida).
A marbled salamander larva.
A marbled salamander larva.

Adults take terrestrial invertebrates, such as worms, insects, centipedes, and mollusks (snails, slugs). Larvae take small aquatic animals (zooplankton), but larger individuals will take eggs and larvae of other amphibians, as well.

Marbled Salamanders are considered a keystone predator because they alter the competitive ability of their prey, allowing other species of prey to thrive.[9]

References[]

  1. ^ Geoffrey Hammerson (2004). "Ambystoma opacum". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2004: e.T59065A11864879. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2004.RLTS.T59065A11864879.en. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  2. ^ "Species Profile: Marbled Salamander (Ambystoma opacum) | SREL Herpetology". srelherp.uga.edu. Retrieved 2019-10-17.
  3. ^ "Salamander, Marbled Salamander | NCpedia". ncpedia.org. Retrieved 2019-10-17.
  4. ^ a b c d e f B.B.Rothermel and R.D. Semlitsch. Consequences of forest fragmentation for juvenile survival in spotted (Ambystoma maculatum) and marbled (Ambystoma opacum) salamanders. Canadian Journal of Zoology. 84(6): 797-807. https://doi.org/10.1139/z06-056
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j TAYLOR, B.E., SCOTT, D.E. and GIBBONS, J.W. (2006), Catastrophic Reproductive Failure, Terrestrial Survival, and Persistence of the Marbled Salamander. Conservation Biology, 20: 792-801. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2005.00321.x
  6. ^ Harding, James H. (1997). Amphibians and reptiles of the Great Lakes Region. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. p. 75. ISBN 0-472-09628-1.
  7. ^ a b c d Petranka, James W. “Observations on Nest Site Selection, Nest Desertion, and Embryonic Survival in Marbled Salamanders.” Journal of Herpetology, vol. 24, no. 3, Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, 1990, pp. 229–34, https://doi.org/10.2307/1564387.
  8. ^ a b c d Gamble, Lloyd R., Kevin McGarigal, and Bradley W. Compton. "Fidelity and Dispersal in the Pond-Breeding Amphibian, Ambystoma Opacum: Implications for Spatio-Temporal Population Dynamics and Conservation." Biological Conservation, vol. 139, no. 3, 2007., pp. 247-257doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2007.07.001. ID: 271811.
  9. ^ Chalcraft, D.R. and Resetarits, W.J., Jr (2003), PREDATOR IDENTITY AND ECOLOGICAL IMPACTS: FUNCTIONAL REDUNDANCY OR FUNCTIONAL DIVERSITY?. Ecology, 84: 2407-2418. https://doi.org/10.1890/02-0550

Further reading[]

  • Gravenhorst JLC. 1807. Vergleichende Uebersicht des Linneischen und einiger neuern zoologischen Systeme ... Nebst dem eingeschalteten Verzeichnisse der zoologischen Sammlung des Verfassers und den Beschreibungen neuer Thierarten, die in derselben sind. Göttingen: Heinrich Dieterich. xx + 476 pp. (Salamandra opaca, new species, p. 431). (in German).
  • Petranka, James W. (1998). Salamanders of the United States and Canada. Washington, District of Columbia: Smithsonian Books. 592 pp. ISBN 1-56098-828-2.
  • Tyning, Thomas F. (1990). A Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles. Stokes Nature Guides. New York: Little, Brown and Company. 416 pp. ISBN 0-316-81713-9.

External links[]

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