Still Time To See Sallies

When I received my most recent volume of Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science, I found myself looking at a Four-toed Salamander (Hemidactylium scutatum) on the front cover, and immediately thought of my searches for this species earlier this year (click here and here) with Lee Casebere, Scott Holaday, and Bill Ringer.  Upon looking at the first article, I was excited to read about the surveys for Four-toed Salamanders that Lee had done with Michael Lodato in Indiana during the past several years [Casebere, L.A. and M. Lodato. 2010. The Four-Toed Salamander (Hemidactylium scutatum) in Indiana: Past and Present. Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science. Vol. 119 (2)].  After reading the article, I emailed Lee to let him know how much I enjoyed the article and that I hoped we could look for Four-toed Salamanders again soon because I needed to get some new photos of them (since the only time I'd ever seen one previously was several years ago in Michigan).  It didn't take long for Lee to write back and thank me for my compliment, and soon enough we had plans to go look for salamanders at Koontz Lake Nature Preserve on 15 October.

Our target, a Four-toed Salamander

It didn't take long to find our first Four-toed Salamander. Although this species was listed as endangered in Indiana until very recently, it was still a treat to find several of them on this blustery autumn day.

A white belly with dark spots gives away the identity of a Four-toed Salamander

The telltale identification feature of Indiana's smallest salamander is the polka-dotted ventral side, with dark spots on a white belly.  Other good identification features are the scaly back (this species was once known as the Scaly Salamander), the dryer texture, and the constriction at the base of the tail (where the body and tail meet).  Oh yeah, and they have four toes on their hind feet.  Males and females look similar, but the males have blunt snouts, whereas those of the females are rounded.

At up to 3 inches long at the most, Four-toed Salamanders are Indiana's smallest salamander species

The geographical range of the Four-toed Salamander includes much of the eastern half of the United States and into Canada to Nova Scotia, with a more concentrated distribution in the northeastern U.S., along the coastal plain, and around the Great Lakes.  Disjunct populations occur in the Ozarks, in the Florida panhandle, and in eastern Louisiana.  In Indiana, Four-toeds are found in sphagnum and tamarack bogs, near woodland springs, in swamps, and in forests with vernal pools.  Sedge clumps or mosses seem to be essential, as the species uses these microhabitat features for nesting sites.

Note the scaly skin and the constriction at the base of the tale in the Four-toed Salamander

Although Four-toed Salamanders were our target for the day, we had good luck with other species as well.  Blue-spotted Salamanders (Ambystoma laterale) were abundant.  Although they can be impossible to distinguish from triploids and hybrids of the Ambysoma jeffersonianum complex without genetic analysis, Lee felt pretty confident that the individuals we were seeing were most likely true Blue-spotted Salamanders, which seem to be confined in Indiana to the northern quarter of the state.

The coloration of this handsome Blue-spotted Salamander reminds me of one of the poison dart frogs in the rainforest

Slightly larger and definitely stockier than the Four-toed Salamander, Blue-spotted Salamanders rarely exceed five inches in length.  The species is known from the eastern provinces of Canada, from the New England states, and from around the Great Lakes.  In Indiana, they are often found in moist, sandy woods.

The third species that we saw was the one that we most expected to see, Redback Salamander (Plethodon cinereus).  There are two common color morphs of this species: one with dark sides and a wide red to orange midline stripe (the striped morph), and one uniformly dark above (the unstriped morph).  A third color morph (the red morph) is uncommon in Indiana and only found in southeastern Indiana; it is uniformly red to orange above.

Probably the brightest and largest Redback Salamander (striped morph) that I've ever seen

For more information on the habits, habitat, and range of the Redback Salamander, see my earlier post that includes information on this species.

The unstriped morph (leadback) Redback Salamander (above) can be confused with the Ravine Salamander (Plethodon richmondi), which is restricted in Indiana to the southeastern part of the state

Lee told me that this was one of the best days he has ever had in terms of number of salamander individuals observed; it was certainly my best ever salamander day as well.  In our three-and-a-half hours together in the field, we tallied 7 Four-toed Salamanders, 20 Blue-spotted Salamanders, and 31 Redback Salamanders (16 striped morph and 15 unstriped morph).  After Lee left, I spent another half hour and found an additional 4 Blue-spotted Salamanders and 1 unstriped morph Redback Salamander.  There probably aren't many days left this year when the sallies will be active, so get out there soon if you plan to find them before the snow falls!

Flipping Rocks And Logs

During the past several weeks, I've done a lot of rock, log, and moss flipping looking for salamanders. Lee Casebere came up to northern Indiana on 13 March 2011 to search for early Four-toed Salamanders (Hemidactylium scutatum), and Scott Holaday and I joined him in this effort.


Unfortunately, no Four-toed Salamanders could be found... the photograph above is from September 2003 in Michigan. We knew that it was a bit early to find salamanders, but we were looking more for habitat than anything else. The habitat that we were searching for was vernal pool with mosses at the waterline. Four-toed Salamanders also are found in bogs, near springs, and in swamps in scattered areas throughout much of the eastern United States. Mosses, especially fern moss (Thuidium spp.) and sphagnum (Sphagnum spp.), are important for this species because females lay eggs within and underneath them to keep the eggs moist and to allow the newly hatched salamanders to drop into the water directly beneath. Four-toed Salamanders can be distinguished by the black-spotted white belly and the tail that is constricted at the point where it meets the body.

The following week, I joined Lee in southeast Indiana to search for Four-toed Salamanders and Two-lined Salamanders (Eurycea cirrigera).


Again, we struck out, sort of. We weren't able to find any Four-toed Salamanders or Two-lined Salamanders on this trip, but as you will see below, we did have a productive day, finding five other salamander species. The Two-lined Salamander pictured above was found in west-central Indiana on 2 April 2011. Lee had told me that they hang out under flat rocks in moving streams, and he was exactly right, as Bill Ringer and I found numerous individuals on our 2 April 2011 excursion. The wide, dark stripe down each side of the often yellowish body identify this species as a Two-lined Salamander. The range of this species in the United States includes nearly all of the states east of the Mississippi River. A Two-lined Salamander spends its first year as an entirely aquatic larva, so this species cannot survive in creeks that completely dry up late in the year.


On the other end of the spectrum is the Redback Salamander (Plethodon cinereus), which is entirely terrestrial. The individual shown above was seen during my 13 March 2011 trip with Lee to southeastern Indiana. You would think that a species with "redback" in the common name could be identified by its red back, like the one shown above, but there is also a color morph that has a dark back and that looks very similar to the much less common Ravine Salamander (Plethodon richmondi). Redback Salamanders are known mostly from the northern states in the eastern half of the United States, but their range extends as far south as North Carolina along the East Coast. Redback Salamanders are found in forests and woodlands.


Northern Dusky Salamanders (Desmognathus fuscus fuscus), shown above, are dark colored and somewhat nondescript. In Indiana, they are only known from the southeastern quarter of the state, but their range within the United States includes most states east of the Mississippi River, plus Arkansas and Louisiana. This species can be found in springs, creeks, and streams, and Lee and I found several under rocks in flowing water on 13 March 2011.


The amphibian above just screams "if you eat me, you will pay." This is the eft stage of the Eastern Newt (Notophthalmus viridescens), and like many other things in nature that are brightly red or orange colored, the Eastern Newt is highly toxic. In fact, the skin of both the eft and adult stage of this species contains one of the most lethal toxins known to man, tetrodotoxin. The concentration of this chemical is much greater in the eft stage than in the adult stage. The Eastern Newt has three life stages... the aquatic larval stage, the entirely terrestrial eft stage, and the aquatic adult stage. Eastern Newts are found in forests with nearly permanent pools that accomodate all three life stages; they are known from most of the eastern half of the United States (to as far west as Texas).


The fourth species that Lee and I saw on 13 March 2011 was the Marbled Salamander (Ambystoma opacum), shown above and below. As the common name implies, the skin of this species has a marbled appearance. This species is found in forests, including floodplains, flatwoods, and uplands. It is known from southern New England to Texas but has a primarily southern distribution. This is likely due in part to the fact that, unlike many other salamanders, Marbled Salamanders breed in the fall and overwinter as larvae. This gives them a competitive advantage and allows the larvae to feed on larvae of other salamanders in the spring. However, a species that overwinters in the larval stage is not well adapted to harsh northern winters.


This one sure looks happy, doesn't it?


Finally, one of the most attractive salamanders in my opinion is the Spotted Salamander (Ambystoma maculatum), shown above. There is no question about where the common name of this species came from! Like many of the other species in this post, Spotted Salamanders are known from much of the eastern half of the United States, to as far west as Texas. Its habitat requirement is forest with ponds, such as flatwoods. According to Minton (2001), "When injured or roughly handled, these salamanders exude a white fluid from skin glands, particularly those on the tail. Upon touching some to my tongue, I noticed an astringent taste followed by slight tingling and numbness." Can't say that I would have tried tasting the exuded fluid had I seen it.

Minton, S.A. Jr. 2001. Amphibians and Reptiles of Indiana. Indianapolis: Indiana Academy of Science.