Mabee's salamander

Last updated

Mabee's salamander
Ambystoma mabeei 243442264.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Urodela
Family: Ambystomatidae
Genus: Ambystoma
Species:
A. mabeei
Binomial name
Ambystoma mabeei
Bishop, 1928

Mabee's salamander (Ambystoma mabeei) is a species of mole salamander found in tupelo and cypress bottoms in pinewoods, open fields, and lowland deciduous forests, pine savannahs, low wet woods, and swamps. It usually burrows near breeding ponds. Eggs are attached to submerged plant material or bottom debris of acidic, fishless ponds in or near pine stands. In Virginia, it breeds in fish-free vernal pond in a large clear-cut area and in ephemeral sinkhole ponds up to 1.5 m deep, within bottomland hardwood forest mixed with pine. Larvae develop in the ponds. Distances moved into terrestrial habitat are unknown, but probably are greater than 150 metres (490 ft).

Contents

Distribution and habitat

The species is found in the Atlantic Coastal Plain in the south eastern United States. Its range includes Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. The total adult population is unknown, but is probably at least 10,000 individuals. [1] Their habitat includes open fields, pine forest and broadleaf woodland. [2]

Behaviour

Juvenile and adult Mabee's salamander are terrestrial and largely live in shallow runs under leaf litter and vegetation. Their diet is likely to consist of small insects and earthworms. The larvae are aquatic and feed on zooplankton and other aquatic invertebrates. [2]

Breeding takes place in the late winter and early spring. Eggs are laid singly or in small clusters and attached to aquatic plants on the bed of the pond. They take up to a fortnight to hatch and the larvae are usually ready to undergo metamorphosis by May. [2]

Status

The IUCN lists Mabee's salamander as being of "Least Concern". The main threats it faces are the degradation of its grassland and woodland habitats and the draining of the ponds and temporary water bodies in which it breeds. The population trend is downwards, but the rate of decline does not appear to be fast enough to justify listing it in a more threatened category. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tiger salamander</span> Species of amphibian

The tiger salamander is a species of mole salamander and one of the largest terrestrial salamanders in North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spotted salamander</span> Species of amphibian

The spotted salamander or yellow-spotted salamander is a mole salamander common in eastern United States and Canada. It is the state amphibian of Ohio and South Carolina. The species ranges from Nova Scotia, to Lake Superior, to southern Georgia and Texas. Its embryos have been found to have symbiotic algae living in and around them, the only known example of vertebrate cells hosting an endosymbiont microbe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California tiger salamander</span> Species of amphibian

The California tiger salamander is a vulnerable amphibian native to California. It is a mole salamander. Previously considered to be a subspecies of the tiger salamander, the California tiger salamander was recently designated a separate species again. The California tiger salamander distinct population segment (DPS) in Sonoma County and the Santa Barbara County DPS are listed as federally endangered, while the Central California DPS is listed as federally threatened. The Sonoma County, south San Joaquin, and the Santa Barbara County DPS have diverged from the rest of the California tiger salamander populations for over one million years, since the Pleistocene and they may warrant status as separate species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jefferson salamander</span> Species of amphibian

The Jefferson salamander is a mole salamander native to the northeastern United States, southern and central Ontario, and southwestern Quebec. It was named after Jefferson College in Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blue-spotted salamander</span> Species of amphibian

The blue-spotted salamander is a mole salamander native to the Great Lakes states and northeastern United States, and parts of Ontario and Quebec in Canada. Their range is known to extend to James Bay to the north, and southeastern Manitoba to the west.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ringed salamander</span> Species of amphibian

The ringed salamander is a species of mole salamander native to hardwood and mixed hardwood-pine forested areas in and around the Ozark Plateau and Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri. This species of salamander has slander body, small head, and long tail. They are usually found to have various dorsal color from dark gray to dark brown. Various close relatives are found such as marbled salamander and spotted salamander. This species of salamander has cannibal behavior especially those in large body size.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Streamside salamander</span> Species of amphibian

The streamside salamander is a species of mole salamander from North America, occurring in several Midwestern states of the US.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frosted flatwoods salamander</span> Species of amphibian

The frosted flatwoods salamander is an endangered salamander species native to the Southeastern United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northwestern salamander</span> Species of amphibian

The northwestern salamander is a species of mole salamander that inhabits the northwest Pacific coast of North America. These fairly large salamanders grow to 8.7 in (220 mm) in length. It is found from southeastern Alaska on May Island, through Washington and Oregon south to the mouth of the Gualala River, Sonoma County, California. It occurs from sea level to the timberline, but not east of the Cascade Divide. Its range includes Vancouver Island in British Columbia and The San Juan Islands, Cypress, Whidbey, Bainbridge, and Vashon Islands in Washington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Long-toed salamander</span> Species of amphibian

The long-toed salamander is a mole salamander in the family Ambystomatidae. This species, typically 4.1–8.9 cm (1.6–3.5 in) long when mature, is characterized by its mottled black, brown, and yellow pigmentation, and its long outer fourth toe on the hind limbs. Analysis of fossil records, genetics, and biogeography suggest A. macrodactylum and A. laterale are descended from a common ancestor that gained access to the western Cordillera with the loss of the mid-continental seaway toward the Paleocene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marbled salamander</span> Species of amphibian

The marbled salamander is a species of mole salamander found in the eastern United States.

The Puerto Hondo stream salamander or Michoacan stream salamander is a mole salamander from the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt within the Mexican state of Michoacán.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Small-mouth salamander</span> Species of amphibian

The small-mouth salamander is a species of mole salamander found in the central United States, from the Great Lakes region in Michigan to Nebraska, south to Texas, and east to Tennessee, with a population in Canada, in Pelee, Ontario. It is sometimes referred to as the Texas salamander, porphyry salamander, or the narrow-mouthed salamander. The Kelley's Island salamander was synonymized with A. texanum in 1995.

<i>Ambystoma talpoideum</i> Species of salamander

Ambystoma talpoideum, the mole salamander, is a species of salamander found in much of the eastern and central United States, from Florida to Texas, north to Illinois, east to Kentucky, with isolated populations in Virginia and Indiana. Older sources often refer to this species as the tadpole salamander because some individuals remain in a neotenic state. This salamander lives among the leaf litter on the forest floor, migrating to ponds to breed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Striped newt</span> Species of amphibian

The striped newt is a species of aquatic salamander native to the southeastern United States. It is a close relative of the eastern newt, with which it shares territory, and can be distinguished from the latter by the presence of red stripes running down the sides of its back and red spots on its back that lack a black outline.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tarahumara salamander</span> Species of amphibian

The Tarahumara salamander is a freshwater species of mole salamander in the family Ambystomatidae, endemic to Mexico. Its natural habitats are temperate forest, subtropical or tropical moist montane forest, subtropical or tropical high-altitude grassland, rivers, freshwater marshes, pastureland, and ponds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sacramento Mountain salamander</span> Species of amphibian

The Sacramento Mountain salamander is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae. It is endemic to mountainous regions of New Mexico in the United States. Its natural habitat is temperate forests where it is threatened by habitat loss.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Junaluska salamander</span> Species of amphibian

The Junaluska salamander is a species of lungless salamander native to the south-eastern United States. It was first described by David M. Sever, Harold M. Dundee, and Charles D. Sullivan who found the species in the range from the Cheoah River, Santeetlah Creek, and Tululah Creek in Graham County of North Carolina. Adults of this species can be found near large, rocky streams and on rainy nights on roads in the areas specified. The salamander is characterized by brownish-yellow coloration with a series of small dots along the body and a robust build compared to the other salamanders in Eurycea. The Junaluska salamander's breeding habits tend to be in large streams where the eggs are laid and attached to the bottom of rocks in the streams where they are found. According to the overall conservation listing for IUCN, this species is listed as Vulnerable. Conservation acts are important in both North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee, since the population of this species in each state is so small.

The reticulated flatwoods salamander is a species of mole salamander, an amphibian in the family Ambystomatidae. The species is native to a small portion of the southeastern coastal plain of the United States in the western panhandle of Florida and extreme southwestern Georgia. The species once occurred in portions of southern Alabama but is now considered extirpated there. Its ecology and life history are nearly identical to its sister species, the frosted flatwoods salamander. A. bishopi inhabits seasonally wet pine flatwoods and pine savannas west of the Apalachicola River-Flint River system. The fire ecology of longleaf pine savannas is well-known, but there is less information on natural fire frequencies of wetland habitats in this region. Like the frosted flatwoods salamander, the reticulated flatwoods salamander breeds in ephemeral wetlands with extensive emergent vegetation, probably maintained by summer fires. Wetlands overgrown with woody shrubs are less likely to support breeding populations.

The mountain stream salamander or mountain stream siredon is a species of mole salamander that only lives in central México.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Geoffrey Hammerson, Joseph Mitchell (2004). "Ambystoma mabeei". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2004: e.T59062A11864333. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2004.RLTS.T59062A11864333.en .
  2. 1 2 3 Joseph C. Mitchell. "Ambystoma mabeei ". AmphibiaWeb. Retrieved 6 December 2013.