Latest luck with Pseudotriton ruber

Hello all,

I wanted to share the latest luck that I've had in the field. I'm taking my university's herpetology class on day trips to search for plethodontid salamanders, so myself and a tech have been out and about looking for salamander "honey holes" in South Mississippi. My goal is to find good Desmognathus spots within a "short" drive from campus, but finding good Pseudotriton localities would be great as well (I'm studying both genera for my dissertation work, and have a particular interest in the latter because it is much less common [or encountered] in MS).

We've had some great days in the coastal counties of MS with both genera. I've attached photos of two of the P. ruber that we found. The younger individual in the photos was encountered in the uppermost portion of a seep-fed stream. We found it beneath a log in the middle of a large, soggy patch of earth. The older individual pictured (less brightly colored) was found in a different seep-fed stream, on a separate trip, beneath a large, uplifted root that was draped in thick moss.

I wanted to ask if older individuals elsewhere in the range looked as dull as the one in this photograph? From the vague recesses of my mind, I think I remember that the purplish color is a trait exhibited by older individuals of the subspecies we have in this area. Also, this adult, along with another large and similarly colored adult which I found in a nearby seep, was rather skinny. Or at least that's how it appeared to me (but I haven't caught many transformed individuals of this species). Many of the field herping photos I see of Pseudotriton show bright, plump individuals. Anyone else out there have photos of older Pseudotriton?

I do have to say, those are some weird looking guys you got there. I haven't seen many P. montanus here, but this one adult was purple-ish.



Apparently, that trend holds with P. ruber, maybe not always getting purple, but darker for sure. I remember this well from catching tons when I lived in New Jersey. Never remember if I caught a P. montanus up there. Where I live now, that doesn't hold. It seems our subspecies P. ruber nitidus keeps a vibrant color all its life.



That one is about 6 in TL, still has that young and fresh appeal.

I found P. rubers within 30 miles of each other in Ohio with completely different color patterns, same subspecies and everything. The one site's individuals were fire engine red, and the other site's were all light orange, with an almost Longtailish yellow hue. The old adults from these populations were almost black in coloration, with huge splotches. However, that doesn't even compare to how odd those are. The lines below the eye on the first one remind me of a Cave Salamander, but those don't live in Mississippi, and couldn't interbreed with P. ruber even if they did. Superb finds!

jaster said:

I do have to say, those are some weird looking guys you got there.

Click to expand...

Your photos show pretty chunky individuals, which is another difference other than color. Granted, I've only found 2 large, transformed P. ruber, but both seemed to be too thin.

Haven't found any P. montanus down here (yet, hopefully we will). From what I've read and heard, they haven't been confirmed in MS since the early 90s. But if I ever do find montanus, you'll hear about it via a very excited forum post.

We went back out this week and caught the same, gorgeous younger P. ruber vioscai within 1 m of where we found him last. But this time I had a better camera!