Salamanders in Southeastern Pennsylvania

     Salamanders are pretty little creatures that live in ponds, stony-bottomed brooks or on moist forest floors, depending on the species.  Though at least ten kinds are common in southeastern Pennsylvania, none of them are commonly seen because they are small and constantly hide, making them mysterious.  All salamanders are predators, catching and eating tiny invertebrates wherever they live.  All have smooth, moist skins, and big eyes to help locate their prey.  Salamanders would die if their skins became dry.  As amphibians, many kinds of salamanders have two lives, one in water and the other in damp soil.
     Eastern newts start life in water as larvae with gills.  But after a few months, the larvae move onto damp forest floors where they have lungs and moist, reddish-orange skins, and are called red efts.  Their red skins are toxic and warn would-be predators not to eat them.  After about a year, the efts return to water to live the rest of their lives as aquatic salamanders.  These newts are pale-green on top that camouflages them, with two rows of red dots.  They have yellow underparts and there whole body has tiny, black dots.
      Eastern newts start life in water and wind up on land as many other kinds of amphibians do, but newts take a third, permanent step back into the water as adults.  My theory is that, perhaps, ancestral newts couldn't tolerate competition for food and space with their relatives on land, so they re-entered the water.
     The related spotted salamanders, Jefferson's salamanders and marbled salamanders are called mole salamanders because they live in damp soil under carpets of dead, fallen leaves on forest floors.  They leave that protective niche once a year to spawn in puddles of rain water and melted snow, the spotted and Jefferson's in early spring and the marbled in autumn.  During the first few rainy days in March when snow melts, spotties and Jefferson's come out of hibernation under the wet leaves and march to woodland puddles to spawn.  Then they quickly return to their protective retreats.  Marbled salamanders spawn in depressions in the forest floor in fall.  Females protect their eggs until rain fills the pools, then they move off to hibernate in the ground through winter.  These salamanders live in water and later on land as many amphibians do.      
     Spotties are, by far, the most common of mole salamanders in this area.  They are about six inches long, and black, with two lovely rows of yellow or orange spots down their backs.  Marbled are about the same size and black, with striking silver markings on top.
     There are several kinds of lungless salamanders in southeastern Pennsylvania, as elsewhere.  Some of them, including northern two-lined, long-tailed, northern dusky and northern red salamanders live in stony brooks and their edges.  None of these salamander species have lungs, but take in oxygen and release carbon dioxide through their moist, thin skins.  These species spawn in water and live in it for the most part, though some individuals crawl out on land during rains or on damp nights. 
     Red salamanders are the biggest of these aquatic lungless salamanders, being up to six inches long and robust.  They are bright red with many tiny, black dots all over.  Long-tails are orange with long tails and many black dots all over.
     Two kinds of lungless land salamanders never enter water at all.  Their lifestyles are like a link between amphibians and reptiles, except these salamanders must be forever moist to live. 
     Red-backed and slimy salamanders live in dark dampness under carpets of dead and fallen leaves and logs on forest floors.  And there the females of each type lay and protect their eggs until their young hatch as miniatures of their parents, ready to feed on tiny invertebrates under those protective places.  What is most interesting about these two land salamanders is they could be forming new species in isolated woodlots surrounded by fields, roads and other dry, sunny habitats that would kill salamanders.  The salamanders in each woodlot would have no news genes coming into its gene pool.  And any little difference in the gene pool of the salamanders in a woodlot would eventually make the whole population different than its relatives in other woodlots.  New species of salamanders could be forming in this way at this moment. 
     Salamanders are beautiful and interesting little creatures.  They are well worth the time to look for, though they should be left in the habitats where found.