Caudata Ambystoma laterale -- Blue-spotted Salamander
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Purple shade indicates vouchered specimens. Light blue (cyan)
shade indicates photographic records. Yellow shade indicates verified
sighting. Slanted hatch indicates pre-1980 records only
NOTE: Not all specimens upon which these maps are based have been verified.
Key Characters: White and blue flecks on body; cloacal opening surrounded by black; no nasolabial grooves.
Similar Species: Jefferson salamander, silvery salamander, slimy salamander, smallmouth salamander.
Description: A medium-sized (up to 13 cm TL), nondescript dark salamander with small white, gray, or bluish flecks on back or sides. Spots and flecks fewer on back, more numerous on lower sides. Smaller, darker, and more spotted than Jefferson and silvery salamanders, with narrower snout and shorter legs. Adpressed limbs overlap 1-2 costal folds. Larva is dark brown with yellowish back blotches and a yellow side stripe.
Habitat: Northern swamp white oak flatwoods and mesic maple-basswood forests containing temporary or fish-free breeding ponds. Also in floodplain forests, oak savannas, pine plantations, marshes, and miscellaneous second-growth forests.
Natural History: Adults occur under logs and other cover during much of year. Diet includes beetles, centipedes, slugs, worms, and other invertebrates. Reproductive biology similar to Jefferson salamander except that A. laterale breeds in more open sites and females attach their small (1.5-1.7 mm diameter) eggs singly or in masses of up to 4 on edges of leaves and other debris on pond bottom; sometimes eggs are scattered.
Status: Greatest threat is urban sprawl. Locally abundant in relatively undisturbed areas of the Northeastern Morainal Division.