Larvae identification

[invertkurt]

Just curious if anyone knows any tricks to larvae IDing in the field. I am in the northeastern US and will be spending my summer researching out in some wetland areas. I am not a herper by trade but an entomologist so field ID is not my forte! I know what species I SHOULD be seeing in the area, just not what they look like. Any good online guides? Field guides? Rules of thumb?

 

[Brian]

I'm in central OH and earlier this month I was trying to identify Eurycea larvae (Eurycea longicauda and Eurycea bislineata look pretty much identical, unfortunately). Oddly enough, there were a few in a pond, and they're normally stream breeders. I've also had a lot of trouble distinguishing between Pseudotriton ruber and Gyrinophilus porphyriticus larvae. My research adviser has a very old book on salamanders of Ohio and it has a (rather difficult to use) key to identifying larval salamanders. Unfortunately, that's all that I've had to go on. I haven't come across any helpful online guides, and I haven't seen any field guides that are helpful when identifying larvae. The best advice that I have for you is to find out exactly which species have been seen in the wetland that you're working at. And maybe do an Amazon search to see if you can find any books on salamanders of your specific region.

 

[Ed]

For the states bordering on Pennsylvania there is a useful key for larval salamanders in Amphibians and Reptiles of Pennsylvania and the Northeast; Cornell University Press, 2001 and while lacking a key the descriptions and pictures in The Amphibians of Great Smokey Mountains National Park (University of Tennessee Press, 2004) and Salamanders of the United States and Canada (Smithsonian Institutional Press 1998) will go a long way to identifying larval caudates as long as you check the range maps).

If you keep an eye on the Highland Biological website (see http://www.wcu.edu/hbs/currentyrcourses.htm#specialworkshops) every few years they offer a two week course on identification of the native larval salamanders.

Ed

 

[geganewt]

what i've found is that when the larvae are bigger they look kind of look like the adults