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Robert E. Herrington 
late May to early June, but no adult females were available for 
dissection during this period. However, ovulation did not begin earlier 
than late May and was completed by early July. White et al. (1982) 
found that ovulation occurred during late June in Virginia. 
No observations have been reported concerning courtship in N. 
taxisiplota. Between 24 April and 5 May 19797, four instances of 
courtship activities were observed. In three of these, single females were 
observed in close association with two to three males. All groups were 
located on tree limbs that were 33 to 63 cm above the water surface. 
Three of the four females were collected, and each had abundant sperm 
in cloacal smears. Two of these females and three additional specimens 
collected during May had in their cloacas gelatinous, semirigid structures 
resembling sperm plugs (Devine 1975). These observations suggest that 
multiple male courtship may be common in N. taxispilota. Multiple 
male courtship was reported for N. sipedon by Mushinsky (1979). 
Mating activities were centered between late April and early May. 
No sperm were detected in cloacal smears of 18 mature females before 
mid-April; however, between mid-April and mid-May, eight of ten 
mature females contained sperm in cloacal smears. Six adult females 
collected prior to 15 April and maintained in captivity failed to produce 
young that year, presumably because mating had not occurred prior to 
capture. No evidence of fall matings was observed in cloacal smears 
taken from 29 adult females sampled during September and October. 
Parturition occurred in captivity between 27 August and 9 
September. Litter size was 16, 14, 26, 13, and 14, for females that were 
86, 88, 94, 95, and 101 cm SVL, respectively. The earliest appearance of 
a newborn specimen in the field was on 21 August 1977. Fecundity, 
including the number of fetuses as well as the number of enlarged 
ovarian follicies, ranged from 14 to 45 and was positively correlated 
with the female SVL (r = 0.77), with SVL explaining 59% of the 
variation. This agrees with the corresponding correlation coefficient of r 
= 0.78 reported by Semlitsch and Gibbons (1978) for N. taxispilota from 
western South Carolina. 
Females apparently produce litters annually once sexual maturity is 
reached. All females that were at least 92 cm SVL had either enlarged 
ovarian follicles or embryos present, and at least four females were 
known to have been gravid in consecutive years. 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . — Part of this work was extracted from 
a Master’s thesis submitted to the Department of Biological and 
Environmental Sciences, Georgia College. Appreciation is extended to 
J. D. Batson, E. R. Barman, and D. Staszak for guidance given during 
