Imitator Salamander
Desmognathus imitator
Sevier Co., Tennessee. April 25th, 2006
Day Five, The Great Salamander Swing
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Herpetofauna - One Life's List
Imitator Salamander Sevier Co., Tennessee. April 25th, 2006 |
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"...the salamanders weren't long in
coming. First up was a new one for me - Plethodon jordani, the
Redcheeked Salamander. This critter was crawling out in the open in the gap
between two boulders. I was working an area around 10-12 feet from the
stream banks, and I kept turning up jordani, one after the other -
they were thick here! I saw nearly a dozen in fifteen minutes, of all
sizes.
Then I turned up a different-looking red-cheeked salamander - a desmognathid,
not a plethodontid. Here was Desmognathus imitator, the Imitator
Salamander. The body shape on this salamander is quite different from
Plethodon jordani, but the red patch on each cheek is there, along with
some faint red in the body markings. I had to stop and ponder who was
imitating who here? Was there a scientific basis for determining the mimic?
Or is it simply that Plethodon jordani was described to science
first, leaving the really crappy name to the second place salamander? I
still had
much to learn about salamanders... Day Five, The Great Salamander Swing
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