Description
An eel-like salamander with external gills and only the forelimbs present; each foreleg has four toes; young have a red band across the snout and along the sides of head; costal grooves 31-38; largest subspecies grows to 68 cm (Conant and Collin 1991).
Habitat
It inhabits shallow, warm, quiet, sometimes turbid waters with abundant vegetation: swamps, sloughs, ponds, lakes, ditches, and to a lesser degree rivers and streams. It hides among plants and debris by day and burrows into bottom mud if water dries up. The eggs are laid in water in a small pocket or debris-covered cavity in bottom mud.
Ecology
About 1200 were found frozen in an ice-covered pond in Arkansas (Sugg 1988). Density in southeastern Missouri was 1.35 to 2.17 sirens per square meter (Frese et al. 2003).
Reproduction
In South Carolina, oviposition occurs during February-April; fertilization evidently is external (Sever et al. 1996, J. Morphol. 227:335-348). Lays clutch averaging about 200 eggs in winter (e.g., in Louisiana, Raymond 1991) or early spring. Female guards eggs. Sexually mature in 2 years. Paedomorphic.