West Virginia Mountains Herping

[gnarvin]

Hey guys a couple weekends ago I went up to my uncles cabin out in the middle of now where in the West Virginia mountains. Thought you guys might enjoy some pictures and help me identify some species I'm not really familiar with.

There is a small stream that runs through his property, including through a small man made pond. There were lots of different salamanders and newts. We don't have as much variety where I'm from (Baltimore County Maryland) So it was really awesome to see everything thriving so well.

I'm using this field guide which doesn't have a lot of pictures or info, so I'll probably be wrong with my species guesses.

These first 2 pictures are either Two Lined Salamanders I think. Maybe a Dusky of some kind.

I believe these next 3 are mudpuppies?

I saw the most of these, but they were very fast and hard to take pictures of, this was the best picture I could get of the 30+ or so I saw that weekend.

Then my favorite of everything I saw the Red Spotted Newt, these were in the small man made pond out front of the cabin, it was full of these and big green frog tadpoles. No preditors really so they were thriving like crazy, blew me away the first time I saw it.

They also didn't seem to really fear me, as I could just reach in and catch them, only did it this one time for a picture though.

And last but not least some Green frogs, first one was in the stream, second was in the pond. The second one had very unusual color of green on his nose, picture doesn't really do it justice.

And last but not least, a short clip of what herping the stream was like, spoiler they were everywhere. Sorry for the shaky cam and quality only had my phone on me.
<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yXKiR0bZbxY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Aneides Aeneus]

Sounds like you had a lot of fun! The first one is indeed a two-lined salamander. The second one is most likely also a two-lined salamander, but I'm not sure. The next three are spring salamander larvae. The one after that is a seal salamander.
Salamander identification can be tricky to learn, and to make matters worse, most websites and guides do not have pictures of the larvae of each species. Most salamander larvae are some form of dull brown, and have bushy gills (like a miniature mudpuppy). They can be very hard to tell apart; most of the time I don't even try. If you are seriously interested in identifying salamanders, I would recommend a field guide such as the Peterson field guide to amphibians and reptiles of eastern and central North America.

-Ananth

 

[gnarvin]

Yea, I love looking through small streams and seeing all the different life they can contain. We don't have nearly as much variety where I usually herp, Baltimore county Maryland, but its still a lot of fun looking. I just ordered "Salamanders of the United States and Canada", but I will probably end up ordering the one you suggested as well, because more info is always good!

I just did a little walk the other day got some more pictures, will have to make another post of what I tend to find more locally to me.

 

[Neotenic_Jaymes]

Those 3 you think are Mud Puppies are actually larval Spring Salamanders. Cool finds.

 

[gnarvin]

@Neotenic_Jaymes Yea someone else mention that when I posted this album to Reddit, thanks!

 

[Aneides Aeneus]

Oh wait, looks like I made a mistake here! Your first salamander is actually an allegheny mountain dusky salamander. They can have a pattern resembling that of a two-lined salamander, but they have thick hind legs, making them dusky salamanders. Mountain dusky salamanders can be almost any color - yellow, orange, red, brown, gray, and black are most common. Unlike most duskies, they have a rounded tail (not keeled).