

One Red Salamand 



E. R. DUNN 



er 



Red Salamander 



Spelerpes ruber 



The red salamander, Spelerpes ruber 

 (Daudin), ranges throughout the eastern 

 half of the United States. It is, however, 

 local in its distribution, being very 

 common in certain places, and decidedly 

 rare in others seemingly as suitable in a 

 single neighborhood. It is more aquatic 

 than others of our eastern salamanders, 

 preferring cold springs to any other 

 habitat. Here they may sometimes be 

 found in great numbers. I have taken at 

 least 68 from a single swamp spring near 

 Haverford College, Pennsylvania. 



In the natural state its food is small 

 earthworms and sowbugs. In one speci- 

 men I found a caterpillar of the army 

 worm. In captivity it will eat finely 

 chopped beef. Large larvae will eat very 

 small ones. 



The identification of the adult is an 



easy matter. It cannot be mistaken for 

 any of the salamanders of the Northeast, 

 except Gyrinophilus porphyriticus, which 

 is larger, more uniform in color, and re- 

 stricted to the Alleghenies. The adult 

 ruber reaches ^y 2 inches. The ground 

 color is a clear red. The upper surface 

 is crowded with black spots which are 

 sharply defined in the small specimens, 

 but in old and large animals are out- 

 lined with dusky, which may obscure the 

 ground color on the back. In the young 

 the belly is unspotted, but very fine black 

 spots appear with age. The tail is about 

 two-fifths the total length. 



The larvae are more difficult to iden- 

 tify. The ground color is white, and the 

 pigment is uniformly distributed over the 

 dorsal surface, except for a few small 

 spots called pigmentless areas, which arc 



