They feed on small invertebrates including earthworms, a variety of insects, and even centipedes. He has found that marbled salamanders on the Savannah River Site lay an average of 80 to 120 eggs under logs or in clumps of vegetation in wetland areas that are likely to flood in late autumn. When the fall and winter rains fill these wetlands and flood the salamander nests, the eggs hatch and the larvae begin to grow and develop. After 3-6 months the larvae metamorphose into solid gray salamanders. As they mature they develop the bold silver pattern on their bodies.
Males have a lighter-colored pattern than females.
Adult marbled salamanders live in the woods around the wetland and return to the water to breed and lay eggs. Marbled salamanders , like many other amphibians, require wetlands to use as breeding sites and nearby forests to live in the rest of their lives. SREL researchers have collected and released as many as twelve thousand salamanders emerging from a single wetland in a 24-hr period. Many of our wetlands in the East have been destroyed or heavily altered to the point where amphibians cannot survive in them. By studying amphibians and the wetlands they live in, we will better understand the role that salamanders and other amphibians play in the ecology of our area.