Natural History of the Salamander, Aneides hardii

The Sacramento Mountains Salamander, Aneides hardii (Taylor), is a plethodontid of relict distribution in the spruce-fir vegetational formation from 8500 to 9600 feet elevation in Otero and Lincoln counties, New Mexico. The salamanders on which most of this report is based were collected three, four, and six miles northeast of Cloudcroft in the Sacramento Mountains. Additional individuals were collected on the eastern slope of Sierra Blanca, 1.5 miles southwest of Monjeau Lookout, at about 9000 feet, Lincoln County, and in the vicinity of Summit Springs and Koprian Springs, 9300 feet, Capitan Mountains, Lincoln County. Certain details concerning the populations in Lincoln County will be reported elsewhere (Schad, Stewart, and Harrington, Canadian Jour. Zool., in press).

We would like to thank Mmes. Donna Schad and Lora Lee Johnston, Messrs. Robert Stewart, Frederick Harrington and Ralph Raitt, and Dr. Robert Selander for assistance in the field, Dr. W. Frank Blair and Dr. Marlowe Anderson for the use of specimens in their care, and Dr. A. Byron Leonard for the identification of the molluscan food items.

In the summer rainy season A. hardii lives in and under downed timber and under talus accumulations. Occurrence, however, seems to be partly subterranean and always local; seemingly good habitat frequently appears to lack the animals. Our observations and collections were made in July, August, and September in 1956, 1957, and 1958. Two hundred seventy-seven individuals were taken; these were measured, sexed and examined for breeding status. The food and parasite content of the guts of a few individuals was determined. Thirteen salamanders were kept for varying lengths of time in captivity. The specimens are now stored in collections at New Mexico State University, University of Texas, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, and the Museum of Natural History, University of Kansas.

The primary study and collecting sites were four and six miles northeast of Cloudcroft, Otero County, at 8600 to 8800 feet in elevation. Vegetation was either almost pure stands of Englemann spruce (Picea englemanni) or mixed stands of spruce, Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga taxifolia) and white fir (Abies sp.). At each locality small oaks (Quercus) were present among the dominant conifers. Most of the salamanders found were in downed Douglas fir logs; some were taken from spruce and others from cracks in a variety of deadwood. In the less deteriorated logs the salamanders lived under the loose bark or in small cracks and chambers near the inner bark surface. In large fir logs in advanced stages of decomposition, salamanders could be found to the very centers. This kind of log was apparently highly favorable for salamanders, for it was in such sites that we found notably large numbers of the animals and most of the clutches of eggs that we collected; this kind of log is not frequently found, for its wood is saturated with water and completely punky and nearly ready for final collapse.

In winter, salamanders that spent the summer at the surface presumably move to subterranean cavities, or, at least, to sites away from winter freezing. In December, 1957, and April, 1958, four feet of snow covered our collecting sites, and the downed logs contained ice. A few logs were wet at the surfaces where sunlight hit them, but just under such melt they were icy. On May 3, 1958, snow was in isolated drifts and the centers of the logs were still icy. On May 31, and June 22, 1958, there was no ice anywhere, but no salamanders were evident. Late June is, however, around the earliest time that A. hardii emerges (Taylor, 1941).

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