Description: The Mabee's salamander is a slender brown or black salamander with a brown or grey belly. Its sides are heavily speckled with flecks of white. Unlike flatwoods salamanders (Ambystoma cingulatum), Mabee's salamander has fewer and duller speckles on its back and only a single row of jaw teeth. It can be differentiated from the stocky mole salamander (Ambystoma talpoideum) by its small head and long toes. This species may also be confused with the Slimy Salamander (Plethodon glutinosus), a black species which has a groove between its nose and lip. The aquatic larvae have broad dorsal fins. At hatching, the larvae have a yellow stripe on each lateral flank and a more uniform brown coloring than adults. As they mature, they develop two indistinct cream-colored stripes in place of the single stripe. The dorsal fins of mature larvae are molted with black spots. In contrast to flatwoods salamander larvae, the lateral stripes of Mabee’s salamander larvae are broken and light. While the flatwoods salamander larvae have eye stripes that are clear and bold, in Mabee’s salamander the eye stripes, if present, are weakly defined.

Habitat: Their habitat includes open fields, pine forest and broadleaf woodland.

Range: The species is found in the Atlantic Coastal Plain in the south eastern United States. Its range includes Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Found in these States: NC | SC | VA

Diet: Juvenile and adult Mabee's salamander are terrestrial and largely live in shallow runs under leaf litter and vegetation. Their diet is likely to consist of small insects and earthworms. The larvae are aquatic and feed on zooplankton and other aquatic invertebrates.

Reproduction: Breeding takes place in the late winter and early spring. Eggs are laid singly or in small clusters and attached to aquatic plants on the bed of the pond. They take up to a fortnight to hatch and the larvae are usually ready to undergo metamorphosis by May.

Status: The IUCN lists Mabee's salamander as being of "Least Concern". The main threats it faces are the degradation of its grassland and woodland habitats and the draining of the ponds and temporary water bodies in which it breeds. The population trend is downwards, but the rate of decline does not appear to be fast enough to justify listing it in a more threatened category.

Taxonomy: