Amphibian habitat is being destroyed, part 2: The marbled salamander

Changing habitat conditions have also taken a toll on the southern populations of the marbled salamander, Ambystoma opacum. I know this from personal experience.

Both Bishop (Handbook of Salamanders) and Conant (A Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern North America) (1947 and 1958 respectively) showed the range of the marbled salamander extending southward on Florida’s Gulf Coast to Tampa Bay. That it extended at least that far south in the mid 1960s is a certainty for Ron Sayers, and I found adults and metamorphs of this beautiful mole salamander under discarded ties beneath a railroad bridge in Lithia Springs.

Between then and today (2013), this still-widespread eastern taxon seems to have lost its foothold on the Florida peninsula, but is still known to occur in suitable habitats on the Florida panhandle. The range of the marbled salamander along the eastern seaboard no longer seems to extend south of southeastern Georgia.

Unlike many of the mole salamanders, rather than laying eggs in the early spring, the female of the marbled salamander lays her clutch of unattached eggs in a loose mass in the autumn. The deposition site is a moist depression that will soon be filled by autumn rains. Until the rains, the female guards the eggs. The crossbands of the female are usually grayish white; those of the male are pure white. The metamorphs have light flecking rather than bands.

Author, photographer, and columnist Richard Bartlett is one of the most prolific writers on herpetological subjects in the 20th century. With hundreds of books and articles to their credit, Richard and his wife Pat have spent over four decades documenting reptiles both in the field and in captivity. For a list of their current titles, please visit their page in our bookstore.