Eastern Red-backed Salamander
Plethodon cinereus
Redback Salamander 2
Identification:
The Red-Backed Salamander is one of the most common salamanders in Vermont. The Red-Backed Salamander is super easy to find; they are black with a red stripe down the middle, some don’t have the red stripe but most do. Their bellies have black and white speckles. The salamander grows to five inches long.
Niche:
Energy Role
The Red-Backed Salamander is a consumer, because it eats other organisms to get its energy to live. The Red-Backed Salamander is a carnivore. The salamander’s diet consists of mites, spiders,insects, centipedes, millipedes, beetles, snails, ants, earthworms, flies, and larvae. The Red-Backed salamander isn’t very high in the food chain. Its known predators are, snakes, blue jays, American robins, American crows, raccoons, striped skunks, Virginia opossums, and large frogs.
Other Roles in the Ecosystem
Although the Red-Backed Salamander is a source of food to many other animals, it also plays another role in the ecosystem. The Red-Backed Salamander is a predator to invertebrates. Having the salamander in the ecosystem keeps the invertebrate populations under control. Keeping the insect population down helps us humans to be able to enjoy the outdoors without having to deal with an overload of pesky insects.
Sources:
http://www.biokids.umich.edu/critters/Plethodon_cinereus/
http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/red-backed_salamander.htm
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Sources and Credits
- (c) blackbear4321, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
- Adapted by blackbear4321 from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plethodon_cinereus
