Ambystoma laterale is known as a “Blue-spotted Salamander” for the blue and white spots on its back and on the sides of its body and tail. Under those blue and white spots is the bluish-black skin which covers the whole body. This salamander is around 3 to 5 inches (8 to 14 cm) long. Their tail is 0.4 or 40% of their body. There are 5 long toes on the back and 4 long toes on the front of the blue-spotted salamander. Females run to be larger than the male. Ambystoma laterale has adapted mainly to moist, shaded forest and swampy woodlands.

Blue-spotted salamanders consume mostly invertebrates such as worms, small insects, spiders, and centipedes. The larvae feed on aquatic invertebrates like mosquito and insect larvae and water fleas. They are able to hide very well making other predators more likely to leave and eat some other animal. Blue-spotted salamanders can produce a milk-like toxic liquid when it feels like there is another predator around. The toxin causes the predator's mouth to become sticky if it comes in contact with the A. laterale.

The salamander is a little different from other salamanders because it prefers to be found above the ground in warmer summer months, trying to stay out of direct sunlight. Blue-spotted salamanders are nocturnal and hunt on the forest floor and under logs. The blue spots help break up the different outline of the body. They are found eastern part of America, northern New England, and they stretch over the Atlantic part of Canada. They are seen around the Great Lakes, and as far as James Bay, Ontario.

It is only common in the state of Michigan. This is because of the loss of wetlands and logging of forests. Blue-spotted salamanders can live up to about two years. The female can lay as many as five hundred eggs on the underwater aquatic environment.

I have learned many things while doing this report but one thing that stood out is how they have gland s on their tail that produces the milky toxic liquid that comes out when it is threatened when the predator attacks they get sticky over its mouth. I learned the Ambystoma laterale receives the name of Blue-spotted salamander because of the blues spots on its body and the population of them is shrinking.

Author: Emma D.
Published:4/2010

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue-spotted_Salamander
http://www.biokids.umich.edu/critters/Ambystoma_laterale/

Photo Credit:
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