They are active primarily at night and are often not seen although they are one of the most common salamanders in all of eastern North America.As adults they are large ranging from 6 to 9.5 inches in length. They are easily recognized by their dark base coloration of black, grey, bluish black grey, or brown with a grey belly and two distinct rows of yellow to orange-yellow spots running down its back. It may have up to 50 of those spots. This is a creature of the hardwood forests and swamps and comes out in late winter and early spring to breed in shallow pools and wetlands while avoiding deep water where they can be easily eaten by fish and other organisms.In fact, in western Kentucky and Tennessee they are often called "spring lizards" and local folklore indicates if you see a spring lizard around your spring it will go dry in the summer. They are often caught for fish bait and in Kentucky live bait dealers can actually sell them as fish bait. The native range in North America is from Canada over to Minnesota down to eastern Texas over to the coast, except for Florida. These animals are called "fossorial" and spend almost their entire lives underground, logs, rocks, or burrows and only come out to breed and forage. And forage they do, eating worms, insects, slugs, and millipedes.These are fascinating creatures and will travel miles and miles looking for appropriate breeding sites where they will lay their eggs in masses that can reach up to 4" long with up to several hundred eggs and shortly after being laid are covered with green algae to camouflage them.The larvae then hatch in a month or so, are about half an inch long, and look like tadpoles except they have feathery gills branching from out of their heads. It will take 2 -4 months for them to completely develop and when they leave the breeding pool they are typically 2 to 2.5 inches long. These critters hibernate during the winter but come out in late winter when temperatures begin to warm to begin the life cycle all over again.
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