Mole Salamander

The mole salamander is a species of salamander found across much of the eastern and central United States, from Florida to Texas and north to Illinois, with isolated populations in Virginia and Indiana. It is stocky, with a short body and large head, measuring 4.5 to 10.9 centimeters and weighing 3.5 to 10.5 grams, colored gray or dark brown with darker mottling above and lighter gray below. It lives among leaf litter on the forest floor, especially in floodplain pine or broadleaf forest near gum and cypress ponds, migrating to those ponds to breed, while its larvae live in ponds and ephemeral, fish free water. Older sources called it the tadpole salamander because some individuals remain neotenic, keeping their larval form, rather than completing metamorphosis.