Spotted Dusky Salamander (Desmognathus conanti)
Description: Desmognathus conanti is a moderately stout salamander with a moderately keeled tail. It has several pairs of golden spots on the dorsum that may sometimes fuse to form a light dorsal stripe in adults. The belly is light with dark flecks. It closely resembles D. fuscus and D. santeetlah, and is thus best distinguished from them by range.
Habitat: Adult Spotted Dusky Salamanders take refuge under logs, rocks, and leaf litter during the day, and move on stream banks at night.
Range: Desmognathus conanti has a wide range in the southeastern and south-central United States, ranging from southern Illinois south to the panhandle of Florida, and west to Louisiana and southern Arkansas.
Diet: Earthworms, spiders, mites, centipedes, millipedes, and other insects.
Reproduction: During courtship, the male stimulates the female by transferring pheromones from his mental gland, usually by rubbing his chin against the female's head or body. Eggs are laid under streamside debris and larvae are fully aquatic.
Status: Listed as Least Concern in view of its wide distribution, large and stable population, and because it is not thought to be decreasing fast enough to be listed in a higher category of threat.
»» Kingdom: Animalia - Animals
»» Phylum: Chordata - Chordates
»» Subphylum: Vertebrata - Vertebrates
»» Class: Amphibia - (Amphibians)
»» Order: Caudata - Salamanders
»» Family: Plethodontidae - Lungless Salamanders
»» Genus: Desmognathus
»» Species: Desmognathus conanti - Spotted Dusky Salamander
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Spotted Dusky Salamander", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0. Content may have been omitted from the original, but no content has been changed or extended.
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