Northern Slimy Salamander
Plethodon glutinosus
Summary 7
The northern slimy salamander, Plethodon glutinosus, is a species of terrestrial plethodontid salamander found through much of the eastern two-thirds of the United States, from New York, west to Illinois, south to Texas, and east to Florida, with isolated populations in southern New Hampshire and northwestern Connecticut. It is called "slimy" because it is capable of excreting a sticky, glue-like substance from its skin. It is also sometimes referred to as the viscid salamander, grey-spotted salamander,...
Morphology 8
The slimy salamander has mainly black skin, covered by abundant silver-white or brassy specks, or both; the ventrum has variable shades but is generally lighter than the dorsum. The organism is distinguished from other dark salamanders in its range by the presence of a nasolabial groove. More noticeably, P. glutinosus is defined by a slimy, glue-like secretion released from its skin glands. It has 16 costal grooves, on rare occurrences 15 or 17, and generally ranges from 4.75 to 6.75 inches in length (Conant and Collins 1998). Hatchlings are born with only slight dark coloration on the dorsum and none on the ventrum; melanin for the specks begins to appear on the dorsum after three days. Adult females exhibit slightly larger snout-to-vent lengths than adult males, but are otherwise similar in appearance (Highton 1956).
Other Physical Features: ectothermic ; bilateral symmetry
Average mass: 4.2 g.
Average basal metabolic rate: 0.00191 W.
Sources and Credits
- (c) Andy Jones, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://www.flickr.com/photos/7433769@N08/2644943042
- (c) 2010 Todd Pierson, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?seq_num=340988&one=T
- (c) 2011 Todd Pierson, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?seq_num=372247&one=T
- (c) Herman Mays, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5069/5608063683_9e69d39f1c.jpg
- (c) Andy Jones, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3065/2644943042_199fa375f0.jpg
- (c) 2007 Frank Teigler, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?seq_num=227865&one=T
- (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plethodon_glutinosus
- (c) The Regents of the University of Michigan and its licensors, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/31416589
