Ambystoma opacum

Marbled salamanders have smooth skin with vertical grooves on each side of the torso, a broad head, and small eyes. The upper side is black with whitish or grayish bands. The belly in plain black. Juveniles are black or brown with numerous tiny light dots on the upperside. Maximum total length is about 5 inches (13 cm). Large larvae have large external gills and a conspicuous row of light spots on each sides bordered by less distinct rows The throat has dispersed, uniform dark stippling, and the chest and sides of the belly have scattered dark specks. Eggs are small separate spheres with clear jelly.

Marbled salamanders live in various wooded habitats, near swamps or vernal pools. They are more tolerant of dry habitats than are most salamanders and can be found on rocky bluffs and slopes and wooded sand dunes. Adults are entirely terrestrial and spend most of their time under surface objects or underground. Eggs are laid in forest depressions such as vernal pool basins and sometimes at the edges of permanent ponds, swamps, and slow-moving streams, in sites that lack standing water in late summer or early fall but are inundated by fall rains and generally hold standing water through winter and into at least early summer of the next year. Oviposition sites typically are in mineral soil beneath protective cover of leaf litter, logs, detritus, or rocks.

Mating and egg deposition occur in late summer or early fall (August-November; earlier in the north than in the south). Mating often occurs before the female arrives at pond-basin nesting areas (Krenz and Scott, 1994, Herpetologica 50:46-50). Females deposit single clutches of up to about 250 eggs, which are attended by the female until the nest is flooded (female commonly deserts nest if disturbed before flooding). Larvae hatch in fall (usually) or as late as spring, depending on when rains flood the nest. Larvae metamorphose in spring or early summer and move into upland habitats. Most first-time breeders are at least a few years old. Maximum life-span is at least 11-12 years.

In South Carolina, reproductive success varied among different years; little or no recruitment occurred during drought periods (Pechmann et al. 1991). Food limitation may reduce individual female reproductive output (Scott and Fore 1995, Herpetologica 51:462-471).