Distribution: The Blue-spotted Salamander ranges from Labrador southwest through Manitoba, southeast through the Great Lakes Basin and northeast to northern New Jersey. Thoughout much of the southern part of this range lies a zone of hybridization with the Jefferson Salamander.

Habitat: Blue-spotted Salamanders occupy coniferous, mixed and deciduous forest, in moist lowlands to moderately dry uplands. In western New York they appear to be more abundant in bottomland forest and wooded swamps.

Photo by James Harding.

Description: 10–14 cm. Blue-spotted Salamanders are medium-sized mole salamanders, black or grayish black with distinct blue or bluish-white spots and flecks on the limbs, back, and the sides of the trunk and tail. The belly is typically black, but within the hybrid zone with Jefferson Salamanders it may be slightly paler than the sides. The vent is black.

Jefferson Salamanders are larger and paler and the light markings are confined to bluish flecks on the sides and limbs. Outside the hybrid zone, the belly of the Jefferson Salamander is distinctly paler than the sides, whereas the belly of the Blue-spotted salamander is black. Inside the hybrid zone, the vent of the Jefferson Salamander is paler than the blackish vent of the Blue-spotted.

Diet The Blue-spotted salamander is a carnivore. The adult eats worms, snails, slugs, insects, centipedes, spiders and other invertebrates. The larvae eat small aquatic invertebrates such as water fleas (cladocerans), copepods, insects and insect larvae, especially mosquito larvae. The diet suggests that the feeding ground is beneath leaf litter in forests. In captivity, Blue-spotted Salamanders survive on 1 worm a week.

Reproduction: Breeding occurs in late March and early April, typically following spring rains. In some parts of their range they prefer grassy floodplain wetlands for breeding, but they will use ponds on the edges of open fields, swamps, and roadside ditches. Eggs are deposited either singly or in small clumps, and are attached to litter on the bottom or are deposited freely in the sediment. Hatching occurs about a month after the eggs are laid, and the aquatic larvae transform into terrestrial adults in late June to mid-August, depending on the permanency of the pond. As in other species, development can be hastened in drying ponds.

Eggs: Eggs are laid singly or in small clusters (2-12 or so), attached to sticks, vegetation, or other submerged substrate, or are deposited directly in the bottom sediments.

Photo by Martha Zettel and Bill O'Neill.

Larvae: Older larvae are brown, greenish-brown, or gray dorsally with dark mottling on the tail fin, sometimes with pale yellow blotches or stripes on the back. The belly is usually pale and unmarked.

The Blue-spotted Salamander is an Obligate Species and must live or breed in vernal pools.

Photo by RW.

Natural History: Although they spend much of their time in burrows or under rocks, logs, and leaf litter, this species is found above ground more often than many other Ambystoma salamanders. Blue-spotted salamanders appear to be more tolerant of disturbance than are Spotted Salamanders and can be found in small forest patches and occasionaly in old fields and suburban areas. Vernal pools are a critical component of their habitat.

The blue-spotted salamander hybridizes with the spotted salamander, the Jefferson salamander, and the tiger salamander. The hybrid between blue-spotted salamander and Jefferson salamander is called A. platineum. It is a unisexual clonal triploid. This hybrid reproduces gynogenetically. Gynogenetic reproduction is where sperm from a host species is needed to activate the egg development but makes no genetic contribution. The hybrid species are dependent upon one of the parental species.

Vernal Pool Conservation

What you can do:

• Resist the temptation to clean up in and around vernal pool habitats. Leave trees, bushes, and understory vegetation, as well as brush, logs, and dead trees.
• Leave a buffer of natural vegetation around the pool for as great a distance as possible back from the edge of the pool's high-water mark. A buffer of at least 100 feet will help maintain water quality, but will do little to protect amphibians living around the pool. Vernal pool breeders require at least 300 yards of natural habitat around their pools in order to survive.
• Do not fill in the pool, even when it is dry, by dumping leaves or other debris in it.
• In areas with more than one pool, try to maintain travel corridors of natural vegetation between them. If some clearing is necessary, avoid drastic alterations that remove most of the trees and other cover. If habitat alterations are necessary, conduct these activities between November and March, when amphibians are less likely to be present. Activities done when the ground is frozen will cause much less damage to the soil than those conducted during warmer months.
• Avoid activities that inadvertently alter the movement of surface water (hydrology) of the upland area that drains into the pool. Digging ditches and similar activities can change runoff into the pool, thereby altering its flooding cycle.
• Do not dig into the bottom of the pool, even when it is dry, as this will disturb the non-permeable layer of soil that allows the pool to flood.
• Work with local conservation commissions and other interested individuals to identify and document vernal pools in your area.

  *Adapted from the Audubon Society of New Hampshire and the Nongame and Endangered Wildlife Program of the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department.

Photo by Tom Lautzenheiser.

A vernal pool is a temporary or semi-permanent body of water, typically filled in the spring by snow melt and spring rain, and holding water for two or three months in the spring and summer.

Vernal pools form in contained basin depressions, meaning that while they may have an inlet, they have no permanent outlet forming a downstream connection to other aquatic systems. They are typically small, rarely exceeding 50 m in width, and are usually shallow. While most are filled with meltwater and spring rains, others may be filled during the fall or with a combination of seasonal surface runoff and intersection with seasonally high groundwater tables. Typical substrates are formed primarily of dense leaf litter. While most vernal pools are found in upland forest, several types have been identified, including floodplain basins, swamp pools and marsh pools.

Periodic drying is a key feature of the ecology of vernal pools. Drying precludes the establishment of permanent fish populations, which would otherwise act as predators on the eggs and larvae of species that live or breed in the pool. While a typical vernal pool is dry during at least part of the year, others may contain some water throughout the year (or for several years), but a combination of shallow water, summer heat, winter freezing, and periodic oxygen depletion prevent the establishment of fish populations.

Terms:

Obligate Species: Species must live or breed in vernal pools.
Facultative Species: Species may be found in vernal pools, but can reproduce in other aquatic habitats where they are available.
Acanthal ridges: Ridges (with light lines) extending from the eyes to the nostrils in spring salamanders.
Costal grooves: The grooves present along the sides of the bodies of many salamanders. When counting them for identification purposes, include only those between the front legs and the hind legs.
Keeled tail: A salamander tail that narrows to a knife edge along its dorsal (top) surface.
Nasolabial grooves: Narrow grooves that extend from the nostrils to the mouth in salamanders of the family Plethodontidae.

Donato, M. 2000. "Ambystoma laterale" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web
Accessed March 04, 2004 at
https://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Ambystoma_laterale.html

The Roger Tory Peterson Institute is a national, non-profit nature education organization with headquarters in Jamestown, New York, birthplace of world renowned artist and naturalist, Roger Tory Peterson (1908-1996). In collaboration with the Center for Applied Technologies in Education, the Roger Tory Peterson Institute has provided these animal profiles to offer a glimpse into the diversity of Vernal Pools in our region.