Spotted Salamander

The **spotted salamander** or **yellow-spotted salamander** (*Ambystoma maculatum*) is a mole salamander common in the eastern United States and Canada. The spotted salamander is the state amphibian of Ohio and South Carolina. This salamander ranges from Nova Scotia, to Lake Superior, to southern Georgia and Texas. Its embryos have been found to have symbiotic algae living inside them.

## Description

Spotted Salamanders are **large** salamander, ranging from 6-9.5 inches (15-24 cm) in length. Ground color can be shades of **black, gray or brown** on its back, gray on its belly. Down each side of the back, there are **two rows of orange and yellow spots**; sometimes as many as 50. *Ambystoma maculatum* is considered monotypic (no recognized subspecies) and has 12 costal grooves.

## Behavior

The spotted salamander usually makes its home in hardwood forest areas with vernal pools, which are necessary for breeding. They cannot breed in most permanent pools because the fish inhabiting the pools would eat the salamander eggs and larvae. Spotted salamanders are fossorial, meaning they spend most of their time underground. They rarely come above ground, except after a rain or for foraging and breeding. During the winter, they hibernate underground, and are not seen again until breeding season in early March–May.

*Ambystoma maculatum* has several methods of defense, including hiding in burrows or leaf litter, autotomy of the tail, and a toxic milky liquid it excretes when perturbed. This secretion comes from large poison glands around the back and neck. The spotted salamander, like other salamanders, shows great regenerative abilities: if a predator manages to dismember a part of a leg, tail, or even parts of the brain, head or organs, the salamander can grow back a new one, although this takes a massive amount of energy. As juveniles, they spend most of their time under the leaf litter near the bottom of the pools where their eggs were laid. The larvae tend to occupy refuges in vegetation, and lower their activity in the presence of predators.

## Range and Habitat

Found throughout eastern North America, spotted salamanders are common in Piedmont and Mountain regions of South Carolina and Georgia. They are much less common in the Coastal Plain and are absent from southeastern Georgia. The spotted salamander can be found in hardwood forests and swamps where it burrows near water. For breeding, it requires temporary pools or wetlands, and avoids deeper water where fish can prey on its eggs or larvae.

## Lifecycle

During the majority of the year, spotted salamanders live in the shelter of leaves or burrows in deciduous forests. However, when the temperature rises and the moisture level is high, the salamanders make their abrupt migration towards their annual breeding ponds. In just one night, hundreds to thousands of salamanders may make the trip to their ponds for mating. Mates usually breed in ponds when it is raining in the spring. Females usually lay about 100 eggs in one clutch that cling to the underwater plants and form egg masses.

The egg masses are round, jelly-like clumps that are usually 6.4–10.2 cm (2.5–4 in) long. The spotted salamander produces a unique polymorphism in the outer jelly layers of its egg masses: one morph has a clear appearance and contains a water-soluble protein, whereas the other morph is white and contains a crystalline hydrophobic protein.[7][8] This polymorphism is thought confer advantages in ponds with varying dissolved nutrient levels, while also reducing mortality from feeding by wood frog larvae.

Adults only stay in the water for a few days, then the eggs hatch in one to two months. Eggs of *A. maculatum* can have a symbiotic relationship with a green alga, *Oophila amblystomatis*. Jelly coating prevents the eggs from drying out, but it inhibits oxygen diffusion (required for embryo development). The *Oophila* alga photosynthesizes and produces oxygen in the jelly. The developing salamander thus metabolizes the oxygen, producing carbon dioxide (which then the alga consumes). Photosynthetic algae are present within the somatic and possibly the germ cells of the salamander. When the eggs hatch depends on the water temperatures.

The Spotted Salamander is fossorial, active at night, and is rarely seen except during breeding seasons. They breed during the winter and early spring when adults migrate from their burrows to pools during winter rains. They exhibit courtship breeding patterns and internal fertilization. Females lay large clumps of up to 200 eggs in shallow pools, often associated with algae. There is believed to be a symbiotic relationship between the algae and the salamander, where the algae are provided with a safe place to live and grow and in turn, algae produce oxygen, which is needed for embryonic development of the larvae. Eggs hatch in four to eight weeks, and larvae metamorphose in two to four months. Adults can live for two decades.

## Diet

The diet of larvae is dominated by zooplankton, but as they grow larger organisms such as isopods and amphipods are incorporated into their diet. The adult diet includes crickets, worms, insects, spiders, slugs, centipedes, and millipedes. Both larvae and adults are primarily nocturnal, coming out at night to hunt for food.

## Conservation

This species is common in most parts of its range and is not protected in our region. However, destruction of temporary wetlands and forest alteration may threaten this species in the future.