Description: The common mudpuppy can be a rusty brown color with gray and black and usually has blackish-blue spots, but some albino adults have been reported in Arkansas. In clear, light water, their skin gets darker, likewise in darker water, their skin gets lighter in color. At sexual maturity, mudpuppies can be 8 inches long and continue to grow to an average length of 13 inches, though specimens up to 17.1 inches have been reported. Their external gills resemble ostrich plumes and their size depends on the oxygen levels present in the water. In stagnant water, mudpuppies have larger gills, whereas in running streams where oxygen is more prevalent, they have smaller gills. The distal portions of the gills are very filamentous and contain many capillaries. Mudpuppies also have small, flattened limbs which can be used for slowly walking on the bottoms of streams or ponds, or they can be flattened against the body during short swimming spurts. They have mucous glands which provide a slimy protective coating.
Habitat: Habitats include permanent lakes, ponds, impoundments, streams, and rivers of all sorts. This species is a bottom dweller that is often under rocks, debris, bank overhangs, etc., during daylight. Animals may move into slack water shallows in late fall and early winter. It apparently tolerates some water pollution and siltation.
Range: Necturus maculosus specimens live in streams, lakes, and ponds in the eastern part of North America. They appear in the southern section of Canada, as far south as Georgia, and from the Midwest United States to North Carolina. Behaviorally, they hide under cover such as rocks and logs during the day and become more active at night. However, in muddy waters, the mudpuppy may become active during the day. Mudpuppies can even live under the ice when lakes freeze. There is an introduced population in Maine.
Diet: They are carnivorous creatures and will eat almost anything they can get into their mouths. Typically they prey upon animals such as insects and their larvae, mollusks, annelids, crayfish, small fish, amphibians, earthworms, and spiders.
Reproduction: Mudpuppies take six years to reach sexual maturity. Mating typically takes place in autumn, though eggs are not laid till much later. When males are ready to breed, their cloacae become swollen. Males deposit their spermatophores in the substratum of the environment. The female will then pick them up with her cloaca and store them in a small specialized gland, a spermatheca, until the eggs are fertilized. Females store the sperm until ovulation and internal fertilization take place, usually just prior to deposition in the spring. Before the eggs are deposited, male mudpuppies leave the nest. Once ready, the female deposits the eggs in a safe location, usually on the underside of a rock or log. They can lay from 20 to 200 eggs, usually an average of 60. The eggs are not pigmented and are about 0.20–0.24 inches in diameter. The female stays with her eggs during the incubation period (around 40 days). Hatchlings are about 0.98 inch long and grow to 1.4 inches before the yolk is completely consumed.
Status: Listed as Least Concern in view of its wide distribution, tolerance of a degree of habitat modification, and its presumed large population.
Disclaimer: ITIS taxonomy is based on the latest scientific consensus available, and is provided as a general reference source for interested parties. However, it is not a legal authority for statutory or regulatory purposes. While every effort has been made to provide the most reliable and up-to-date information available, ultimate legal requirements with respect to species are contained in provisions of treaties to which the United States is a party, wildlife statutes, regulations, and any applicable notices that have been published in the Federal Register. For further information on U.S. legal requirements with respect to protected taxa, please contact the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
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