Yellow-back, red back salamander

[i_love_necturus]

Here was a surprise today. I usually find red back sals (Plethodon cinereus) throughout my yard, both red-back and lead-back variations. Today I found a red-back with a tannish yellow stripe. Haven't seen one of these before. Some pictures of my find. I also found a nice little painted turtle, haven't seen one of those in a couple of years.

 

[Nathan050793]

Woah, now that's really interesting. I've never seen that in P. cinereus either. Thanks so much for sharing!

 

[Otterwoman]

Very cool! And in your own backyard!

 

[Kaysie]

What a pretty little thing! I'm not usually impressed by redbacks, but that one certainly is nice. I found a pretty unusually colored one the other day (almost all tan, a little darker than your stripe), but unfortunately, it was the ONE time I went in the field without my camera. D'oh!

 

[i_love_necturus]

Overall this was a very good day for red-backs (but which day isn't really?) and I went back out and found a bunch more. I found so many I didn't even bother lifting all the logs in the usual spot. Two big ones were found together and one was gravid, I didn't check but I figured the other was a male? Anyway here is a picture of the big ol' female. Quality isn't great, she was moving around a lot, but at least you can see the bulge and the yellowish eggs---sort of. There was a heavy rain and I suppose it got all these guys out of hiding.

 

[Gregh]

Nice, we have lots of redbacks in NS too, but I've never seen one like the one you showed at top. Once I'm off in late april i'm going to be doing some searching around in the woods/trails out my hometown way as well. How long is the season right for finding a lot of newts anyway?

 

[Slimy2]

Great find! I have found many Plethodon angusticlavius with golden-yellow backs before but did not know this occurred in Plethodon cinerus as well. Nor have I seen this in Plethodon serratus either. Beautiful salamanders.

 

[merk199]

Nice brings back memories of my younger days. We used to find sals by the hundreds like that up here in MA. Thinking about those sals is what has gotten me into my newts right now. Around where I am you can find those sals April through October. After that I am not sure I just know it gets cold and I'm not lifting dead wet logs when its cold. I'm a wuss

 

[Melmo]

I've seen P. Cinereus with yellow backs, but never such a cool shade. Great find!

 

[merk199]

I went out worm hunting with my daughter and we found a red back adult, and a juvie that was about an inch long. I was little disappointed and disheartened we only found these two specimen. Hopefully this hunt does not confirm what I think I will find over the next few weeks. My guess is the population is not going to be as plentiful as it was in my youth.... I forgot the camera which was too bad because I have never seen a red back juvie b4 that small.

 

[AU SalamanderRG]

Wow. These are beautiful salamanders. Must be why the Plethodontids are my fave group of salamanders.

 

[stormcrow73]

Just now found this thread. I've seen a similar coloration in some specimens in Frederick Co. Maryland.

 

[yotetalker]

I see you guys are talking about red back salamanders.... The children were out back the other day a came back with a handful of the little guys an which i noticed one of them had a yellow stripe on it... I end up haveing the kids take all of them back to where they found them since we already have two in a tank but as you know children they wanted to keep the little yellow one so I set up another tank for the little guy....We are planning to go out this weekend an see what we can find, hopefully I can bring back some picks for all of you.....

 

[monkeyfrogman28]

i have two of that exact variation in my 5.5 gallon tank. i found them under my baseketball hoop

 

[Kurt]

I once found a hypomelanistic red-back. It almost completely orange. I am hoping I can find more.