Larvae usually have light bars or crossbands on an olive green or dark brown background. The adult small-mouth salamander prefers to eat insects, slugs and worms. Reproduction Ambystoma texanum breeds very early in the year. The migration to breeding ponds seems to be stimulated by just a few days of rain in late winter, frequently while ice still covers portions of the ponds. They tend to stay closer to breeding ponds in summer and late winter than other salamander species.
Courtship consists of groups of males bumping and nudging the females and each other.
A sibling species, A. barbouri, has a different reproductive strategy. The two species were formerly considered two races of A. texanum but now are classified as different species. A single female can produce 300 to 700 eggs annually, which are deposited in small loose gelatinous masses of 3-30 eggs. The eggs hatch in 3-8 weeks. The larvae metamorphose to terrestrial salamanders in two to three months.