I spent this past weekend in pursuit of Ambystoma species in East Texas. The area I visited was new to me. The first thing that struck me when I got out of the car in the woods on the first day was just how dry the ground is right now. This part of the state hasn't seen much rain in a long time and I know for a fact that most of the Marbled Salamander females in this area wasted their time laying this time around. I found many depressions that were obviously ephemeral ponds but all were dry as a bone. Flipping revealed nothing (I spent much of Saturday and Sunday finding just that).
On Saturday I came across a muddy patch a hundred feet or so from a creek. The moisture seemed to be caused by seeping water from underground. On a hunch I looked through the debris on the mud and came up with three of these:
Dwarf Salamander (Eurycea quadradigitata):
That was the sum total of my Caudates on Saturday and Sunday, though I did meet a herd of 9 Feral Hogs in the depths of the woods on Sunday - you would be surprised how much an adult hog resembles a black bear through the undergrowth - yikes.
I decided to spend Monday in the same area. Two miles from the Eurycea seepage I came upon this pond, which was obviously pretty low on water from the colour and looking at the edges. The pond contained egg masses of the Mole Salamander, Ambystoma talpoideum, and what were either large A. talpoideum larvae or paedomorphs.
The pond:
Wide view of a few A. talpoideum egg masses:
Close-up of an A. talpoideum egg mass near hatching (note the colouration of the larvae):
And one of the large larvae (8.5 cm TL):
Not too far from here, by a road, was this pond, which contained large Marbled Salamander larvae, A. opacum, as well as A. maculatum egg masses in late development:
One of the A. opacum larvae:
One of the A. maculatum egg masses (note the opacity of the mass and the presence of symbiotic algae):
Under wood at the pond's edge there was a Yellow-Bellied Water Snake, Nerodia erythrogaster flavigaster, who does a good impersonation of the smell of skunk:
And nearby, an adult Spotted Salamander, A. maculatum:
So a disappointing weekend came good in the end. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. My only real disappointment was not finding any Small-Mouth Salamanders, Ambystoma texanum. But I will be back in a few weeks and you never know what might turn up!
On Saturday I came across a muddy patch a hundred feet or so from a creek. The moisture seemed to be caused by seeping water from underground. On a hunch I looked through the debris on the mud and came up with three of these:
Dwarf Salamander (Eurycea quadradigitata):
That was the sum total of my Caudates on Saturday and Sunday, though I did meet a herd of 9 Feral Hogs in the depths of the woods on Sunday - you would be surprised how much an adult hog resembles a black bear through the undergrowth - yikes.
I decided to spend Monday in the same area. Two miles from the Eurycea seepage I came upon this pond, which was obviously pretty low on water from the colour and looking at the edges. The pond contained egg masses of the Mole Salamander, Ambystoma talpoideum, and what were either large A. talpoideum larvae or paedomorphs.
The pond:
Wide view of a few A. talpoideum egg masses:
Close-up of an A. talpoideum egg mass near hatching (note the colouration of the larvae):
And one of the large larvae (8.5 cm TL):
Not too far from here, by a road, was this pond, which contained large Marbled Salamander larvae, A. opacum, as well as A. maculatum egg masses in late development:
One of the A. opacum larvae:
One of the A. maculatum egg masses (note the opacity of the mass and the presence of symbiotic algae):
Under wood at the pond's edge there was a Yellow-Bellied Water Snake, Nerodia erythrogaster flavigaster, who does a good impersonation of the smell of skunk:
And nearby, an adult Spotted Salamander, A. maculatum:
So a disappointing weekend came good in the end. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. My only real disappointment was not finding any Small-Mouth Salamanders, Ambystoma texanum. But I will be back in a few weeks and you never know what might turn up!
