Dead or Alive.
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Small Mouthed Salamander
Description - The small-mouth salamander only grows from 4.5 to 7.0 inches. It is typically black or dark brown in color with light-grey blotching. It has a fairly small head, relative to its body, and a long tail. Males are typically smaller than females. Their bellies are black, often with tiny flecks, and have 14 to 15 costal grooves. They are not endangered.
Behavior, Habitat, and Range.
Small-mouth salamanders are nocturnal, often subterranean, preferring moist habitats near permanent bodies of water. Breeding occurs in the spring, with groups of salamanders congregating near the water. Females can kay up ti 700 eggs, which they attach in small clumps of up to 30 eggs at a time, to rocks or vegetation under water. Their diets include insects, slugs, and earthworms. Larvae hatch at 0.5 inches, they metamorphosis in May to June at about 1.6 inches. When disturbed, the small-mouth salamander raises its tail and waves back and forth. Being shy and sensitive, it shares breeding pools with larger spotted salamanders and marbled salamanders.
Small-mouth salamanders live in moist pine woodlands and deciduous forest bottomlands, tall grass prairies, farming areas, near temporary ponds, and along streams. Their is for Ohio south to the Gulf of Mexico, west to Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.
Growing and Reproducing.
The larvae change to terrestrial salamanders in two to three months after hatching. The reproduce using metamorphosis.
Males bump and nudge females and each other, they will then move away from the group and deposit small packages of sperm on the pond-bottom or on a stick or leaf. Females then come along and collect the sperm package.