How many here keep Wehrle`s Salamanders (P. wehrlei)?

[josh1990]

Just wanted to know how many keep Wehrle`s. I have two that are great feeders and overall good captives.

 

[Greatwtehunter]

I can't believe I missed this thread.:blush: Anyways, I currently have 5 adults and I would agree with you in saying the make great captives. From the moment I caught mine they have always been great eaters. It also seems like that at any given moment there is always one or two out and about in their enclosure hunting.

 

[taherman]

Got any photos? I've still never seen one in the wild, unless it was a misidentified glut.

 

[josh1990]

Mine are out and about everytimepeek in on them.
They eat a wide range of prey it seems. Mine eat most anything like fruit flies, house flies, maggots, earthworms, crickets, centipedes, millipedes, and springtails.

They are very aggresive feeders. I once had one grab hold of a cricket that I was holding with tongs and ripped it in half taking the front part of the cricket!

Greatwtehunter how do you keep yours?
I keep mine in a large plastic shoebox.

taherman, I don`t have any pictures, I need to take some and load them. I don`t have a very good camera though.

 

[KevinS]

I've been on the hunt for P. wehrlei for the last few months just because I've never found any and would like to get some pictures. I'm not quite within their range, but I spent several hours searching for them on a trip for work a few weeks ago...no luck unfortunately. I'm surprised yours are so visible. I've never kept any Plethodon in captivity, but I would've assumed they'd be very secretive.

 

[Kaysie]

The best way I can describe the look of Werhle's is '"baby" glutinosus'. That is, they've got a bigger head in relation to body size, and their eyes are bigger. They also tend to be a bit smaller than glutinosus.

 

[KevinS]

Like I said, I haven't found any myself, but I have a friend who did his thesis work on the high elevation Plethodon in WV and I've read up on them so I'd be able to distinguish them from similar species if I found any. P. wehrlei should have noticeably webbed feet and are supposed to be more of a milky grayish color as opposed to the darker black of most glutinosus, cylindraceus, etc. It's subjective, but they're also supposed to be more flattened and slender. Everyone I know who has found them talks like P. wehrlei and P. punctatus would be difficult to confuse with glutinosus or any of its sibling species if you're very familiar with salamanders.