Our trip to
Caw Caw Interpretive Center last week was a bit too gray and rainy for spotting
reptiles, but it turned out to be the perfect weather for catching plenty of
amphibians! The first Herp Alert of the
day came when we turned over an old log to find this salamander hiding in the
leaf mold underneath. The salamander was
about five inches long, with shiny black skin and mottled gray markings along
its sides. As soon as I picked it up, it
began to secrete much more than any of the other amphibians we had handled (except
maybe the amphiuma!). I had scooped the
salamander up along with a handful of leaves and dirt, and its defense
mechanism managed to glue all the debris firmly onto my hands. Dr. Welch told us the goo was a hint about
its species, and sure enough, we were able to identify it as Plethodon variolatus, the South Carolina
slimy salamander.
Slimy
salamanders are part of a large group, the Plethodon
glutinosus species complex, which includes populations all across the
southeast and mid-Atlantic regions of the US. They belong to the Plethodontidae, the most
diverse family of salamanders. Salamanders
in the Plethodontidae have no lungs and rely on the gas exchange they perform
through their skin. Many of them,
including the slimy salamanders, have no larval stage and develop their
terrestrial morphology in the egg instead.
Because of this, juveniles look like miniature versions of the adults in
everything but their body proportions.
Based on its size, though, our salamander was most likely an adult. Slimy salamanders do not need to reproduce in
water, thanks to their direct development, so they instead lay their eggs in a damp,
sheltered environment like the log where we found the adult. Because salamanders tend to keep to a small
home range, we released it back under the same log to continue enjoying the
rainy day.
References:
Peterson Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America
Herpetology Program, Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, University of Georgia
2 comments:
I thought the slimy salamander was a really interesting amphibian to find. It is fascinating that one can identify this species by the feel of it, slimy! Thank you for sharing more about its life history and a few cool pictures. It's always exciting catching salamanders.
How did we narrow it down to this particular species within the P. glutinosis complex?
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