It was late, about 11 or 12 o'clock at night, it was fall, it was warm and it had been raining all day, these were the perfect conditions leading up to an encounter with a Marbled Salamander (Ambystoma opacum). My super swift husband was able to catch this beautiful specimen that was running along side our house this evening. We brought it inside to examine and show our then 2 year old son. These truly were perfect conditions for spotting the Marbled salamander, unlike other Ambystoma who breed in the spring, the opacum species breed in the fall. After mating the female will find a dry depression to lay her 50-100 eggs which will hatch with the first rain that comes. It is interesting that the eggs are able to remain dormant if a rain never comes and hatch the following spring. I could not tell if the salamander was male or female at the time and unfortunately my best picture is slightly blurry. However, the males typically have silvery-white crossbands which become very white during breeding season, while the females crossbands are silvery-gray. So looking back at the picture now I would guess this animal to be female due to the gray crossbands. I'm looking forward to finding more Herps in our yard this spring, we have a lot of wooded area and plenty of leaf litter for the critters since we don't rake.
Jena Fay, TN
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