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Marbled salamander

The marbled salamander (Ambystoma opacum) is a species of mole salamander found in the eastern United States.

Marbled salamander
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Urodela
Family: Ambystomatidae
Genus: Ambystoma
Species:
A. opacum
Binomial name
Ambystoma opacum
(Gravenhorst, 1807)

Description

The marbled salamander is a stocky and boldly banded salamander. The marbled salamander exhibits sexual dimorphism with bands of females tending to be gray, while those of males are more white. Juveniles do not have any bands and have white flecks instead. [2] Adults can grow to about 11 cm (4 in), small compared to other members of its genus. Like most of the mole salamanders, it is secretive, spending most of its life under logs or in burrows.

Habitat and range

Marbled salamanders are found in the eastern United States, from southern New England to northern Florida, and west to Illinois and Texas. They have been found as far north as New Hampshire, though only two sightings have been reported there. Their habitats are damp woodlands, forests, and places with soft and wet soil. Seasonally flooded areas are essential for breeding, but the salamanders do not normally enter the water. Like many salamanders, marbled salamanders have poison glands to deter predators.[3] Studies have been conducted around marbled salamanders to see if clearcutting has an impact on the species demography.[4]

The marbled salamander is the state salamander of North Carolina.[5]

Lifecycle and reproduction

Lifecycle

 
An adult marbled salamander

The first months that Marbled Salamanders spend living out of the water are the most important in determining how many will survive until the next breeding season.[6] Marbled Salamanders are not strong burrowers, therefore they rely on existing holes in the ground for shelter.[6] Desiccation, heat stress, soil moisture, temperature, and pH are all important factors in determining if a Marbled Salamander will survive.[6] Chances of survival are low for Marbled Salamanders who travel through fields, however, they have been observed to traverse fields in order to find other pond areas.[6] Marbled Salamanders survive best in a forest habitat, compared to an open field.[7][6] Protecting wetlands is key to the survival of this species.[7] Conservationists recommend leaving a buffer zone of forest around wetlands to increase survivorship of Marbled Salamanders.[6] Male marbled salamanders have also been shown to have a higher survivorship than females.[8] Marbled Salamanders in the northern portions of their range can also go into a state of torpor to survive the cold months. [9]

Adults spend most of their time in their burrows or under logs, as is the case with most mole salamanders. Juvenile marbled salamanders hatch early compared to most salamanders and gain a size advantage by feeding and growing for several months before the Jefferson salamanders and spotted salamanders hatch later in the spring. Larvae typically mature as quickly as two months in the southern part of their range, but take up to six months to mature in the northern part. Marbled salamanders, like other members of this genus, are reported to have relatively long life spans, 8–10 years or more.

Reproduction

Courtship of this species takes place on land. The males will compete by butting heads and blocking another male’s movement with its tail. When courting the female, a male will nudge the vent of a female with its snout, with the intent that the female will respond in kind. This back-and-forth nudging has the appearance of a dance as the two salamanders circle around one another. This display culminates with the male depositing a spermatophore and the female moving to take it into her cloaca. The female will then lay between 50 and 200 eggs, often remaining with them until the nest floods.[10] One fairly unique parental care behavioral characteristic[11] of Marbled Salamanders is that when the mothers do stay with their eggs, they wrap their bodies around the eggs to form a bowl shape. They do this when rain is coming to collect water over the eggs. For this species, water via rainfall or rising pond water levels must make extended contact with the eggs in order for them to begin hatching.[12]

However, it has been observed that females may abandon their eggs before flooding occurs.[13] Female Marbled Salamanders have a very low attachment to their eggs, and they will abandon their nest after a disturbance.[13] They have also been observed to abandon undisturbed nests.[13] When the mother leaves the nest, she leaves the eggs vulnerable to predation by other salamanders, frogs, and beetles.[13]

Reproductive success is highly variable for the Marbled Salamander.[7] Some years many juveniles will survive, while other years the breeding population may experience a catastrophic failure, and very few juveniles will survive.[7] These catastrophic failures occur randomly, but it has been found that they are mainly influenced by the length of the hydroperiod.[7] A short hydroperiod is the main cause of catastrophic failure.[7] Because Marbled Salamanders have relatively long life spans, their chances of extinction due to catastrophic failure are low.[7] If they do not breed successfully one year, they will be alive the next year to try again.[7] However, if there are other complications affecting their survival, the possibility of a catastrophic failure poses a larger threat to the overall population.[7] Surviving on land, outside of the reproduction season, is very important to keep the population stable.[7]

While most Marbled Salamanders return to the pond where they were born to breed, some may travel over 1,000 meters to locate a new pond to breed.[14] This often occurs when their natal pond has a small population that may not have a large selection of mates.[14] This dispersal helps populations of Marbled Salamanders to avoid genetic problems, by introducing new genes into the population.[14] This dispersal also means that it is important to view these populations as a larger metapopulation, rather than focusing simply on a single wetland area.[14]

Larval salamanders have been found to be positively phototactic until fully developing their rear legs, at which point they switch and become negatively phototactic.[15]

Feeding

 
Adult female with eggs (Florida)
 
A marbled salamander larva
 
A marbled salamander larva

Adults take terrestrial invertebrates, such as worms, insects, centipedes, other arthropods,[16] and mollusks (snails, slugs). Larvae take small aquatic animals (zooplankton, mainly copepods and cladocerans),[17] but larger individuals will take larger crustaceans (isopods, fairy shrimp), aquatic insects, snails, oligochaete worms,[18] and eggs and larvae of other amphibians, as well.

Marbled Salamanders are considered a keystone predator because they alter the competitive ability of their prey, allowing other species of prey to thrive.[19]

Predator avoidance

When A. opacum is under attack by a predator, they often exhibit tail lashing, head-butting, body coiling, or potentially becoming immobile. These defensive moves are thought to draw attention to the tail, which has granular glands that produce noxious secretions to protect themselves. While some predators have learned to eat the body of Marbled Salamanders and leave the tail, this is still a deterrent for many predators. A problem with the granular glands Marbled Salamanders possess is that secretions are reduced after multiple attacks, making them more vulnerable.[20]

References

  1. ^ Geoffrey Hammerson (2004). "Ambystoma opacum". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2004: e.T59065A11864879. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2004.RLTS.T59065A11864879.en. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  2. ^ Powell, R., Conant, R., Collins, J. T., Conant, I. H., Johnson, T. R., Hooper, E. D., Taggart, T. W., Conant, R., & Collins, J. T. (2016). Peterson Field Guide to Reptiles and amphibians of Eastern and central North America. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
  3. ^ "Species Profile: Marbled Salamander (Ambystoma opacum) | SREL Herpetology". srelherp.uga.edu. Retrieved 2019-10-17.
  4. ^ Church, Don R.; Bailey, Larissa L.; Wilbur, Henry M.; Green, James H.; Hiby, Lex (2022-04-19). "Salamander Demography at Isolated Wetlands within Mature and Regenerating Forests". Diversity. 14 (5): 309. doi:10.3390/d14050309. ISSN 1424-2818.
  5. ^ "Salamander, Marbled Salamander | NCpedia". ncpedia.org. Retrieved 2019-10-17.
  6. ^ a b c d e f B.B.Rothermel and R.D. Semlitsch. Consequences of forest fragmentation for juvenile survival in spotted (Ambystoma maculatum) and marbled (Ambystoma opacum) salamanders. Canadian Journal of Zoology. 84(6): 797-807. https://doi.org/10.1139/z06-056
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j TAYLOR, B.E., SCOTT, D.E. and GIBBONS, J.W. (2006), Catastrophic Reproductive Failure, Terrestrial Survival, and Persistence of the Marbled Salamander. Conservation Biology, 20: 792-801. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2005.00321.x
  8. ^ L., Husting, E. (1965). Survival and Breeding Structure in a Population of Ambystoma maculatum. OCLC 869796391.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. ^ 3. life history features. - university of Georgia. (n.d.). Retrieved April 28, 2022, from https://srelherp.uga.edu/projects/AmbystomaOpacum-LannooBook.pdf
  10. ^ Harding, James H. (1997). Amphibians and reptiles of the Great Lakes Region. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. p. 75. ISBN 0-472-09628-1.
  11. ^ Todd, Brian D.; Davis, Andrew K. (September 2007). "Sexual dichromatism in the marbled salamander, Ambystoma opacum". Canadian Journal of Zoology. 85 (9): 1008–1013. doi:10.1139/Z07-082. ISSN 0008-4301.
  12. ^ Charney, Noah D.; Kubel, Jacob E.; Eiseman, Charles S. (2015-03-23). Cimmaruta, Roberta (ed.). "Temporally Adaptive Sampling: A Case Study in Rare Species Survey Design with Marbled Salamanders (Ambystoma opacum)". PLOS ONE. 10 (3): e0120714. Bibcode:2015PLoSO..1020714C. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0120714. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 4370673. PMID 25799224.
  13. ^ a b c d Petranka, James W. “Observations on Nest Site Selection, Nest Desertion, and Embryonic Survival in Marbled Salamanders.” Journal of Herpetology, vol. 24, no. 3, Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, 1990, pp. 229–34, https://doi.org/10.2307/1564387.
  14. ^ a b c d Gamble, Lloyd R., Kevin McGarigal, and Bradley W. Compton. "Fidelity and Dispersal in the Pond-Breeding Amphibian, Ambystoma Opacum: Implications for Spatio-Temporal Population Dynamics and Conservation." Biological Conservation, vol. 139, no. 3, 2007., pp. 247-257doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2007.07.001. ID: 271811.
  15. ^ Marangio, Michael S. (1975). "Phototaxis in Larvae and Adults of the Marbled Salamander, Ambystoma opacum". Journal of Herpetology. 9 (3): 293–297. doi:10.2307/1563194. ISSN 0022-1511. JSTOR 1563194.
  16. ^ "AmphibiaWeb - Ambystoma opacum".
  17. ^ "Ambystoma opacum (Marbled Salamander)". Animal Diversity Web.
  18. ^ "Ambystoma opacum (Marbled Salamander)". Animal Diversity Web.
  19. ^ Chalcraft, D.R. and Resetarits, W.J., Jr (2003), PREDATOR IDENTITY AND ECOLOGICAL IMPACTS: FUNCTIONAL REDUNDANCY OR FUNCTIONAL DIVERSITY?. Ecology, 84: 2407-2418. https://doi.org/10.1890/02-0550
  20. ^ "Virginia Herpetological Society". www.virginiaherpetologicalsociety.com. Retrieved 2022-04-05.

Further reading

  • Gravenhorst JLC. 1807. Vergleichende Uebersicht des Linneischen und einiger neuern zoologischen Systeme ... Nebst dem eingeschalteten Verzeichnisse der zoologischen Sammlung des Verfassers und den Beschreibungen neuer Thierarten, die in derselben sind. Göttingen: Heinrich Dieterich. xx + 476 pp. (Salamandra opaca, new species, p. 431). (in German).
  • Petranka, James W. (1998). Salamanders of the United States and Canada. Washington, District of Columbia: Smithsonian Books. 592 pp. ISBN 1-56098-828-2.
  • Tyning, Thomas F. (1990). A Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles. Stokes Nature Guides. New York: Little, Brown and Company. 416 pp. ISBN 0-316-81713-9.

External links

  • Animal Diversity Web

marbled, salamander, this, article, multiple, issues, please, help, improve, discuss, these, issues, talk, page, learn, when, remove, these, template, messages, this, article, relies, largely, entirely, single, source, relevant, discussion, found, talk, page, . This article has multiple issues Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page Learn how and when to remove these template messages This article relies largely or entirely on a single source Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page Please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources Find sources Marbled salamander news newspapers books scholar JSTOR October 2019 This article includes a list of general references but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations October 2019 Learn how and when to remove this template message Learn how and when to remove this template message The marbled salamander Ambystoma opacum is a species of mole salamander found in the eastern United States Marbled salamanderConservation statusLeast Concern IUCN 3 1 1 Scientific classificationDomain EukaryotaKingdom AnimaliaPhylum ChordataClass AmphibiaOrder UrodelaFamily AmbystomatidaeGenus AmbystomaSpecies A opacumBinomial nameAmbystoma opacum Gravenhorst 1807 Contents 1 Description 2 Habitat and range 3 Lifecycle and reproduction 3 1 Lifecycle 3 2 Reproduction 4 Feeding 5 Predator avoidance 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External linksDescription EditThe marbled salamander is a stocky and boldly banded salamander The marbled salamander exhibits sexual dimorphism with bands of females tending to be gray while those of males are more white Juveniles do not have any bands and have white flecks instead 2 Adults can grow to about 11 cm 4 in small compared to other members of its genus Like most of the mole salamanders it is secretive spending most of its life under logs or in burrows Habitat and range EditMarbled salamanders are found in the eastern United States from southern New England to northern Florida and west to Illinois and Texas They have been found as far north as New Hampshire though only two sightings have been reported there Their habitats are damp woodlands forests and places with soft and wet soil Seasonally flooded areas are essential for breeding but the salamanders do not normally enter the water Like many salamanders marbled salamanders have poison glands to deter predators 3 Studies have been conducted around marbled salamanders to see if clearcutting has an impact on the species demography 4 The marbled salamander is the state salamander of North Carolina 5 Lifecycle and reproduction EditLifecycle Edit An adult marbled salamanderThe first months that Marbled Salamanders spend living out of the water are the most important in determining how many will survive until the next breeding season 6 Marbled Salamanders are not strong burrowers therefore they rely on existing holes in the ground for shelter 6 Desiccation heat stress soil moisture temperature and pH are all important factors in determining if a Marbled Salamander will survive 6 Chances of survival are low for Marbled Salamanders who travel through fields however they have been observed to traverse fields in order to find other pond areas 6 Marbled Salamanders survive best in a forest habitat compared to an open field 7 6 Protecting wetlands is key to the survival of this species 7 Conservationists recommend leaving a buffer zone of forest around wetlands to increase survivorship of Marbled Salamanders 6 Male marbled salamanders have also been shown to have a higher survivorship than females 8 Marbled Salamanders in the northern portions of their range can also go into a state of torpor to survive the cold months 9 Adults spend most of their time in their burrows or under logs as is the case with most mole salamanders Juvenile marbled salamanders hatch early compared to most salamanders and gain a size advantage by feeding and growing for several months before the Jefferson salamanders and spotted salamanders hatch later in the spring Larvae typically mature as quickly as two months in the southern part of their range but take up to six months to mature in the northern part Marbled salamanders like other members of this genus are reported to have relatively long life spans 8 10 years or more Reproduction Edit Courtship of this species takes place on land The males will compete by butting heads and blocking another male s movement with its tail When courting the female a male will nudge the vent of a female with its snout with the intent that the female will respond in kind This back and forth nudging has the appearance of a dance as the two salamanders circle around one another This display culminates with the male depositing a spermatophore and the female moving to take it into her cloaca The female will then lay between 50 and 200 eggs often remaining with them until the nest floods 10 One fairly unique parental care behavioral characteristic 11 of Marbled Salamanders is that when the mothers do stay with their eggs they wrap their bodies around the eggs to form a bowl shape They do this when rain is coming to collect water over the eggs For this species water via rainfall or rising pond water levels must make extended contact with the eggs in order for them to begin hatching 12 However it has been observed that females may abandon their eggs before flooding occurs 13 Female Marbled Salamanders have a very low attachment to their eggs and they will abandon their nest after a disturbance 13 They have also been observed to abandon undisturbed nests 13 When the mother leaves the nest she leaves the eggs vulnerable to predation by other salamanders frogs and beetles 13 Reproductive success is highly variable for the Marbled Salamander 7 Some years many juveniles will survive while other years the breeding population may experience a catastrophic failure and very few juveniles will survive 7 These catastrophic failures occur randomly but it has been found that they are mainly influenced by the length of the hydroperiod 7 A short hydroperiod is the main cause of catastrophic failure 7 Because Marbled Salamanders have relatively long life spans their chances of extinction due to catastrophic failure are low 7 If they do not breed successfully one year they will be alive the next year to try again 7 However if there are other complications affecting their survival the possibility of a catastrophic failure poses a larger threat to the overall population 7 Surviving on land outside of the reproduction season is very important to keep the population stable 7 While most Marbled Salamanders return to the pond where they were born to breed some may travel over 1 000 meters to locate a new pond to breed 14 This often occurs when their natal pond has a small population that may not have a large selection of mates 14 This dispersal helps populations of Marbled Salamanders to avoid genetic problems by introducing new genes into the population 14 This dispersal also means that it is important to view these populations as a larger metapopulation rather than focusing simply on a single wetland area 14 Larval salamanders have been found to be positively phototactic until fully developing their rear legs at which point they switch and become negatively phototactic 15 Feeding Edit Adult female with eggs Florida A marbled salamander larva A marbled salamander larvaAdults take terrestrial invertebrates such as worms insects centipedes other arthropods 16 and mollusks snails slugs Larvae take small aquatic animals zooplankton mainly copepods and cladocerans 17 but larger individuals will take larger crustaceans isopods fairy shrimp aquatic insects snails oligochaete worms 18 and eggs and larvae of other amphibians as well Marbled Salamanders are considered a keystone predator because they alter the competitive ability of their prey allowing other species of prey to thrive 19 Predator avoidance EditWhen A opacum is under attack by a predator they often exhibit tail lashing head butting body coiling or potentially becoming immobile These defensive moves are thought to draw attention to the tail which has granular glands that produce noxious secretions to protect themselves While some predators have learned to eat the body of Marbled Salamanders and leave the tail this is still a deterrent for many predators A problem with the granular glands Marbled Salamanders possess is that secretions are reduced after multiple attacks making them more vulnerable 20 References Edit Geoffrey Hammerson 2004 Ambystoma opacum IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2004 e T59065A11864879 doi 10 2305 IUCN UK 2004 RLTS T59065A11864879 en Retrieved 19 November 2021 Powell R Conant R Collins J T Conant I H Johnson T R Hooper E D Taggart T W Conant R amp Collins J T 2016 Peterson Field Guide to Reptiles and amphibians of Eastern and central North America Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Species Profile Marbled Salamander Ambystoma opacum SREL Herpetology srelherp uga edu Retrieved 2019 10 17 Church Don R Bailey Larissa L Wilbur Henry M Green James H Hiby Lex 2022 04 19 Salamander Demography at Isolated Wetlands within Mature and Regenerating Forests Diversity 14 5 309 doi 10 3390 d14050309 ISSN 1424 2818 Salamander Marbled Salamander NCpedia ncpedia org Retrieved 2019 10 17 a b c d e f B B Rothermel and R D Semlitsch Consequences of forest fragmentation for juvenile survival in spotted Ambystoma maculatum and marbled Ambystoma opacum salamanders Canadian Journal of Zoology 84 6 797 807 https doi org 10 1139 z06 056 a b c d e f g h i j TAYLOR B E SCOTT D E and GIBBONS J W 2006 Catastrophic Reproductive Failure Terrestrial Survival and Persistence of the Marbled Salamander Conservation Biology 20 792 801 https doi org 10 1111 j 1523 1739 2005 00321 x L Husting E 1965 Survival and Breeding Structure in a Population of Ambystoma maculatum OCLC 869796391 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link 3 life history features university of Georgia n d Retrieved April 28 2022 from https srelherp uga edu projects AmbystomaOpacum LannooBook pdf Harding James H 1997 Amphibians and reptiles of the Great Lakes Region Ann Arbor University of Michigan Press p 75 ISBN 0 472 09628 1 Todd Brian D Davis Andrew K September 2007 Sexual dichromatism in the marbled salamander Ambystoma opacum Canadian Journal of Zoology 85 9 1008 1013 doi 10 1139 Z07 082 ISSN 0008 4301 Charney Noah D Kubel Jacob E Eiseman Charles S 2015 03 23 Cimmaruta Roberta ed Temporally Adaptive Sampling A Case Study in Rare Species Survey Design with Marbled Salamanders Ambystoma opacum PLOS ONE 10 3 e0120714 Bibcode 2015PLoSO 1020714C doi 10 1371 journal pone 0120714 ISSN 1932 6203 PMC 4370673 PMID 25799224 a b c d Petranka James W Observations on Nest Site Selection Nest Desertion and Embryonic Survival in Marbled Salamanders Journal of Herpetology vol 24 no 3 Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles 1990 pp 229 34 https doi org 10 2307 1564387 a b c d Gamble Lloyd R Kevin McGarigal and Bradley W Compton Fidelity and Dispersal in the Pond Breeding Amphibian Ambystoma Opacum Implications for Spatio Temporal Population Dynamics and Conservation Biological Conservation vol 139 no 3 2007 pp 247 257doi https doi org 10 1016 j biocon 2007 07 001 ID 271811 Marangio Michael S 1975 Phototaxis in Larvae and Adults of the Marbled Salamander Ambystoma opacum Journal of Herpetology 9 3 293 297 doi 10 2307 1563194 ISSN 0022 1511 JSTOR 1563194 AmphibiaWeb Ambystoma opacum Ambystoma opacum Marbled Salamander Animal Diversity Web Ambystoma opacum Marbled Salamander Animal Diversity Web Chalcraft D R and Resetarits W J Jr 2003 PREDATOR IDENTITY AND ECOLOGICAL IMPACTS FUNCTIONAL REDUNDANCY OR FUNCTIONAL DIVERSITY Ecology 84 2407 2418 https doi org 10 1890 02 0550 Virginia Herpetological Society www virginiaherpetologicalsociety com Retrieved 2022 04 05 Further reading EditGravenhorst JLC 1807 Vergleichende Uebersicht des Linneischen und einiger neuern zoologischen Systeme Nebst dem eingeschalteten Verzeichnisse der zoologischen Sammlung des Verfassers und den Beschreibungen neuer Thierarten die in derselben sind Gottingen Heinrich Dieterich xx 476 pp Salamandra opaca new species p 431 in German Petranka James W 1998 Salamanders of the United States and Canada Washington District of Columbia Smithsonian Books 592 pp ISBN 1 56098 828 2 Tyning Thomas F 1990 A Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles Stokes Nature Guides New York Little Brown and Company 416 pp ISBN 0 316 81713 9 External links Edit Wikispecies has information related to Ambystoma opacum Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ambystoma opacum Animal Diversity Web Savannah River Ecology Laboratory USGS ITIS Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Marbled salamander amp oldid 1169867727, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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