Mole Salamanders in the Mid-Atlantic States

Heavy or prolonged rain, day and night, in the Mid-Atlantic states in March wakens spotted salamanders and wood frogs from hibernation under carpets of fallen leaves in deciduous woods. Those two species of amphibians climb up through blankets of wet leaves and proceed to little pools, called vernal ponds, that rapidly fill with rain water and snow melt, to spawn. Male wood frogs croak hoarsely, but the salamanders are silent, making them more difficult to notice.

Three kinds of related, four to eight-inch salamanders that live in this area ― Marbled, Jefferson,  and Spotted ― are called mole salamanders because of their habit of tunneling through carpets of dead and fallen leaves and soil on forest floors. There they stay moist and relatively safe while looking for invertebrate food.

All amphibians, including salamanders, must be moist to survive. If they dry they die.

Mole salamanders have lungs to live on land. But they are seldom seen on land because of their mole-like habits. As adults, however, they go to vernal ponds in woodlands during a few days and nights once a year to spawn. They are most visible to us humans during that brief time, especially at night, the time when most people are not in the woods.

The larvae of mole salamanders develop in eggs in gelatin-like masses laid in temporary puddles in the woodlands. Each half-inch larva hatches a few weeks later with four legs, a swimming tail, and a branching, external gill on each side of its neck that takes oxygen from the water. The larvae live in those pools a few months where they eat aquatic invertebrates. But they are engaged in a race to develop lungs and escape the puddles before they dry. If they lose, they die.

Now Where Did I Leave Those Eggs?

Marbled salamanders grow to be four to five inches long. They are stout-bodied and black with broad silver markings on top. Their range is southeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, southern New York state and southern New England, though they are spottily distributed in that area.

Marbled salamander females spawn in dry depressions on leaf-covered forest floors, usually in November. Each female may lay 100 eggs, on average, and tends those eggs until the depression fills with rain water. The larvae develop in those eggs for more than four months. 

Jefferson salamanders are five to eight inches long, stocky and dark-gray, brown or black all over, with light-blue speckles on their flanks. Their range is most of Pennsylvania, southern New York and western New England. This species spawns in temporary, woodland pools within a few days from mid-February to early March, depending on air temperatures. Each female lays about 150 to 300 eggs in small, clear masses. The young hatch about a month later. 

Spotted salamanders are the most common and most commonly seen of mole salamanders in the Middle Atlantic States. Biggest of the local mole salamanders, and the most striking, spotted salamanders are six to nine inches long, chunky and dark with two rows of large yellow spots running lengthwise on their heads, backs and tails. This species spawns in vernal ponds in woods during a few days and nights during rainy weather in late February or early in March. Their jello-like egg masses are milky-white, contain scores of eggs and lie on the bottoms of woodland pools.

Even if the reader doesn't ever see these pretty and secretive salamanders in the woods, it is neat to know they exist in the Middle Atlantic States. And if they are seen in the wild, please leave them there. They are becoming less common because of loss of woodland habitat.

Photo courtesy of Kerry Wixted