Ambystoma maculatum
Tom Gula
Spotted Salamanders are
large salamanders, sometimes growing over nine inches
long. Their skin is
bluish-black or dark gray, and they have two rows of round
yellow or orange spots down their backs. Their bellies are
slate gray. Spotted Salamanders live
in forests
where there are pools of water in the Spring, or nearby
ponds. Adult
Spotted Salamanders spend most of their time
underground. Copyright, Mamoru
Kawamura
Mark Moran
Spotted Salamanders breed
in March and April, after temperatures begin to get warmer
and heavy rains have fallen. Adults go to
breeding
pools or ponds to mate. Females then lay a milky egg mass,
up to four inches across. She attaches it to underwater
sticks or plant stems. Salamander
larvae
hatch in a month or two, depending on temperatures. Larvae
are about 1/2 inch when they are born. They look a lot like
tadpoles
except they have feathery gills
branching out from their heads. Copyright, Sorin
Damian R. Wayne Van
Devender Larvae will transform
into adults in two to four months. Until that time they will
continue living in water, eating insect larvae, water fleas,
and other small creatures. If there isn't enough food, they
will even eat each other. When they leave the water
as adults, the young salamanders are about two and a half
inches long. They will burrow under logs and rocks where
they can keep their skin moist. Without moisture, Spotted
Salamanders will dry out and die. As adults, Spotted
Salamanders eat earthworms, snails, slugs, spiders,
millipedes, centipedes, isopods, and insects. Some of this salamander's
predators
include: skunks, raccoons, turtles, chipmunks, squirrels,
opossums, and snakes. As eggs and larvae,
salamanders are eaten by fish, turtles, aquatic
insects, birds, frogs, and crayfish. Copyright, Richard
Glor
Mark Moran