Salamandrina habitat and a couple of encounters

[francesco]

The other day I went for a walk somewhere in northern latium

first encounter:

second:

It is quite early for them to be around but I reckon the warm weather we're having at the moment in Italy made them come out of hibernation earlier.

 

[andy]

Beautiful animals Francesco! There is little information on salamandrina on this forum, keep it coming!

 

[paris]

those are just too cool! the only photos i saw before yours were of a skinny one in a book-its nice to know there are healthy ones out there-any chance of egg sitings/photos or larval photos soon?

 

[pamela]

Gorgeous little ones! Nice woodlands too.

 

[francesco]

Paris
I don't go there very often nowadays. However if next time I see some eggs or larvae I'll post some pictures of them.

 

[leonardo]

Paris I have to say that this particular species is usually rather skinny in "normal" conditions, and that the specimens in the photos can look more "plump" just because they are carrying eggs (in fact they often are females caught near the breeding site in spring)...

bye the way, I've being visiting and studying a salamandrina breeding site for 4 years now and so...here is a pic of salamandrina's eggs!;-)

here is a nice pic I took two days ago...

bye

Leo

(Message edited by leonardo on April 01, 2005)

 

[paris]

too cool! you think all those eggs were laid by 1 female or do several females use a site???

 

[leonardo]

every female usually lays among 20/50 eggs, and many females may use the same stones (also because in this little stream there are not so many available stones), so be sure that those eggs are from different females

 

[leonardo]

some example of the variety of salamandrina's ventral-pattern...

 

[andy]

Thanks Leonardo! its great to see salamandrina information coming into this forum, please continue with the pictures!

 

[kamil]

Thank you for those GREAT pictures you two! As I love Salamandrina it was a big pleasure to me looking at such nice pictures!

Best greetings and loads of Salamandrina pics please,

Kamil ;-)

 

[henk]

Well these are just so great ... looks like I should also some european salamander trip to make shots like this .... Very fine animals and great to find some info on these rather difficult to track animals...

 

[leonardo]

yes henk you're right, it's rather difficult to study this shy animal, and we don't know (almost) anything about courting, about males or about juveniles in the wild...out of the breeding season they simply seem to "disappear"...:-(

by the way, this morning I had my usual Sunday visit to the breeding site and made some pics for you guys

on the hand, before measuring:

another female:

the breeding site (a laminar permanent stream):

by the way, this species is going to be split up in two different ones (after molecular studies): Salamandrina terdigitata, which should be from Latium to Northern Italy, and Salamandrina perspicillata which should live from Latium down to Southern Italy...
"my" breeding site is in middle Latium, and I still don't know which species these specimens will be...

bye
Leo

 

[mike]

Hi Leonardo,

Those are some great photos of your animals and their habitat. In that last habitat photo looks very similar to a creek in which I've watched Taricha torosa breed. What is the goal of your research?

Thanks,

Mike

 

[rubén]

Awesome document Francesco and Leo

It's always nice hear and see something new about this mysterious species

Complimenti

 

[frank]

Hi Leonardo, the animals you showed appear to be northern animals. The southern Salamandrina are (even) smaller, have broader head markings and tend to show more brownish colors. The animal shown in the picture stems from Campania.

 

[leonardo]

hi Paul, I think that general appearence is not a good parameter for distinguishing terdigitata from perspicillata, as the variability is too high, even in small populations like the one I study...
see this shot:

there are individual with very bright head marks, or with light-brown dorsum, with almost totally red bellies etc...

bye
Leo