Larva - total length ~3cm.
July 13 and 16 2012 Revisited the previously observed D. fuscus nursery to check on egg development. Can clearly see features of developing embryos, female still present and protective (bit at a stick I was using to clear small debris for the photo).
Discovered a female D. fuscus brooding a small clutch of eggs. Nursery excavation is on a stone hollowed out of thick sphagnum moss, creekside (a well-sourced shallow trickle really) about 6 inches from the water.
D. fuscus hatchlings (a week or less since hatching) hanging out in the nursery excavation where I had been observing a female with eggs for several weeks.
The dusky salamander (Desmognathus fuscus) is an amphibian in the lungless salamander family. The species is also sometimes called the northern dusky salamander by those acknowledging that populations in the southern United States form a sepeate species, called the southern dusky salamander (Desmognathus conanti). It can be found in eastern North America from extreme eastern Canada in New Brunswick south into the panhandle of Florida and west to Louisiana. The size of the species' total population...
