Spotted-tail salamander facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Spotted-tail salamander |
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| Adult Eurycea lucifuga | |
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The spotted-tail salamander (Eurycea lucifuga) is a cool creature. It's also called a "cave salamander" because it loves caves! This amazing animal is a type of brook salamander. It's known for its bright colors and unique tail.
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About the Spotted-Tail Salamander
The spotted-tail salamander is a fairly large salamander. It can grow to be about 10 to 20 centimeters long. That's like the length of a pencil! Its tail is super long, making up more than half of its total body length.
These salamanders have bright orange or reddish-orange backs. Their bellies are usually pale and don't have any marks. Their backs are covered with lots of spots and dashes. These marks are spread out in a unique way. They also have long legs. You can count 14 to 15 grooves on the sides of their bodies. What's really neat is that their tails can grab onto things, like a monkey's tail! This is called a prehensile tail.
Where They Live and Roam
Spotted-tail salamanders usually live in places with lots of limestone rock. You can often find them in cracks in rocks, on cliffs, and deep inside caves. They can even be found hundreds of meters inside a cave, far from any light.
Even though they are called "cave salamanders," they don't only live in caves. You might also spot them in forests near rocky areas. They like places with springs and can be found under wet rocks and logs. These salamanders live in many parts of the United States. You can find them in states like Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Kansas, Indiana, and Ohio.
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Life Cycle and Reproduction
Scientists are still learning a lot about how spotted-tail salamanders find partners and have babies. What we know so far suggests they mate in the summer and early fall.
Courtship Behavior
When a male and female salamander are ready to mate, they do a special dance. The male might gently rub his chin on the female's head. He might also do "push-ups" with his back legs! Then, he tries to put the base of his tail under hers. If the female is interested, she will walk over his tail. They walk together, and the male arches his back.
The male then leaves a tiny packet of sperm, called a spermatophore, on the ground. It's about 4 millimeters tall. The female then picks up this packet with a special opening called a cloaca.
Laying Eggs
After mating, females take a long time to lay their eggs. This can happen from September all the way to February. It's hard for scientists to find their eggs. This suggests that females choose secret spots to lay them. They might use springs, streams, or small pools deep inside caves and rocky cracks.
In Missouri, some eggs have been found. They were laid one by one or stuck to the sides of small pools. Some were on silt (fine dirt) or at the bottom of tiny pools. Freshly laid eggs are white. They have two jelly layers around the baby salamander inside. Each egg is about 2.5 to 3.2 millimeters wide. A female can lay anywhere from 5 to 120 eggs!
Baby Salamanders (Larvae)
Baby spotted-tail salamanders, called larvae, look similar to other baby Eurycea salamanders. They have been found in both surface streams and in cave streams and pools. Sometimes, heavy rains might wash larvae out of caves and into surface streams.
Larvae are hunters! They eat tiny creatures that live on the bottom of streams. Their favorite foods include snails, tiny crustaceans called ostracods and copepods, and insect larvae like mayflies, stoneflies, beetles, and flies. They slowly crawl along the bottom and grab their prey with their mouths. They swallow their food whole, so they can only eat things that fit in their mouths.
It takes about 6 to 18 months for a larva to grow up and change into a land-dwelling adult. This time can be different depending on where they live. Larvae can grow up to 70 millimeters long before they change into adults.
