Lead P. cinereus in NH?

[llaplante]

I was wondering if anyone knew whether the leadback phase of P. cinereus is common in New Hampshire? If so, any suggestions of where to find them in the southern part of the state?

 

[will_j]

Hi there, welcome to the forum!

I have always assumed that in most cases, leadbacks are rarer than redbacks, and they are just encountered by chance. There are areas where leadbacks are in the majority, though I do not know any specific sites and even if I did, I hope you understand the need to keep such information out of the public domain such as this forum to protect species or forms such as the leadback.

Please don't take it personally if no-one replies for this reason.

 

[tylototriton]

I've never found a concentration of leadbacks in a particular area, I always find them intermingled with normal phase redbacks. I'm not really sure about the biology of leadbacks, as in whether or not they produce only leadback offspring. From what i've seen though, the morphs are found together.

Alex

 

[llaplante]

I just read the Locality Information policy...as a newbie, I'm learning! I understand that revealing specific sites is not likely to happen. Perhaps, those in the area can tell me what my chances are for encountering leadbacks. I'm a biologist who has recently moved to this area and would like to do some non-invasive work comparing leadback and redback behaviors.

 

[Kaysie]

Leadbacks are just a color phase; any place you find high densities of redbacks, you'll find some leadbacks scattered in the mix. I believe it's just a recessive gene causing the lack of red.

 

[jimmythenewt]

Hello,

leadbacks are a result from temperature ranges. leadbacks cope better with higher temperatures than redbacks ... so in times of warming you find more leadbacks than redbacks. how i know? i have read a paper recently of people who have researched that.

 

[geganewt]

that would make sense because i've only found leadbacks here in williamsburg and it does get rather warm here (80-100) in the summer

 

[Kaysie]

I've found leadbacks in all varieties of habitats. I have trouble believing it is entirely temperature-based.

 

[llaplante]

It's true that both the striped and leadbacks are found throughout the species' range. However, a recent study (Gibbs and Karraker 2006) suggests that a greater proportion of leadbacks are found in areas with warmer microclimates. I think this is the study that jimmythenewt was referring to above.