100 Species #8: Red-backed Salamander

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Red-backed salamander Plethodon cinereus

I was clearing debris in the back yard when I picked up a chunk of broken cinderblock and found a cherished old friend. When I was a young boy playing in the woods of Stafford Connecticut, turning over logs was my favorite pastime. Most of the time I'd find just a few sowbugs, maybe a centipede or some earthworms. But if the conditions were right--moist but not soggy, leaf litter without too many pine needles--I'd find a salamander. That was always a delight.

The red-backed salamander is far and away the most common tailed amphibian in New England. In fact, one often-repeated notion is that the total mass of red-backed salamanders in the Northeast is greater than that of any other animal. Probably not, but it's a neat idea. Here is a remarkable creature, with a backbone but no lungs, an amphibian that never goes to water but lays its eggs in the wet debris of a suburban lawn.

The red-backed salamander was relatively recently featured on this blog as More Urban Species #39.