Four-Toed Salamander (Hemidactylium scutatum)

County List:

Rule:

Forested or Mixed Forested/Nonforested Landscapes

Habitat Requirements may be distributed across the COMPARTMENT

1st alternative:
      (Northern Hardwoods (Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))
      or (Mixed Northern Hardwoods (Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))
   containing:
      Dead Down Woody Debris
   neighboring:
      (Bog or Treed Bog)
   adjacent to:
      (Pond or River)

2nd alternative:
      (Northern Hardwoods (Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))
      or (Mixed Northern Hardwoods (Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))
   containing:
      Dead Down Woody Debris   
   neighboring:
      (Bog or Treed Bog)
   containing:
      Vernal Pools

Habitat List:

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Literature:

This species inhabits moist woodlands with boggy ponds or creeks, tamarack and sphagnum bogs, and conifer swamps. The are most common in shady, undisturbed forests with shallow ponds edged with moss and rotting logs. Adult four-toed salamanders are terrestrial and are sometimes found under logs with red-backed salamanders. Unlike the red-backed however, their larvae are fully aquatic.

In spring the female moves to a nesting site at the edge of a pond or stream. Here she lays 15 to 40 or more eggs in a cavity under or within a clump of moss or in rotting wood. The nest is situated so that larvae fall into the water when they hatch.

Four-toed salamanders feed on small invertebrates, mainly insects and spiders.

Habitat: Wet woodlands, preferably with sphagnum moss shaded, shallow woodland pools; tamarack bogs. Hides in moss, in moist decaying wood, under stones or wet leaves. Prefers an acidic environment. Found in beech/maple, yellow birch/maple, and other hardwood forests, found less often in coniferous woods. In mixed forests in New York. Larval stage is aquatic, found in pools and quiet streams with abundance of moss. Typically hibernates in decaying root systems of trees. Aggregations may appear during hibernation with rooted wood or leaf litter. Maple alder sapling swamp in Connecticut.

Special Habitat Requirements: Acidic wet woodlands.

Habitat: The single common habitat element noted by herpetologists from throughout the four-toed's range is wet moss, usually sphagnum moss. The adults are terrestrial and are generally associated with forests in or adjacent to sphagnum bogs, or forests with sphagnum dominated depressions in them. The four-toed takes refuge in the wet moss, under fallen objects, and in rotting wood. The aquatic larvae are found in small ponds and slow moving streams running through bogs and wet mossy areas.

These salamanders hibernate in and under rotting wood and leaves as well as in the channels of decaying tree roots. Most reports indicate a tendency of four-toeds to clump together in small or rather large groups to hibernate. One report from southern Michigan (Blanchard 1933) details a hibernation site of just a few square meters where nearly 200 four-toeds were found under the leaf litter, and in association with 114 spring peepers, 83 swamp tree frogs, 8 wood frogs, and smaller numbers of Jefferson salamanders, redback salamanders, and red-spotted newts.

Eggs are laid in cavities with a clump of moss or grass overhanging water.

Interactions: Indirect interaction would include destruction of the salamander's habitat by development, road construction, and timber harvesting in and around boggy wetlands, peatlands, and forested wetlands. The first two would result in permanent destruction, and the last, a temporary change until a forest canopy could be reestablished to provide cooler temperatures on the forest floor.