Abstract
Salamanders of several species were heated in experiments designed to reveal differences between species with respect to the critical thermal maximum. Also the effect of acclimation on the upper thermal level tolerated was tested. It was found that salamanders of the species Desmognathus fuscus and D. quadramacula-tus have significantly lower critical thermal maxima after being kept for several days at five degrees Centigrade than when kept at fifteen degrees before being used in experiments. At the five-degree level of acclimation, the widely distributed fuscus has a slightly but statistically significantly higher critical thermal maximum than quadramnaculatus, a species restricted to montane streams. Desmognathus ochrophaeus carolinensis has possibly the lowest CTM among the species tested, while Diemiictylus viridescens proved to have greater resistance to high temperatures than the other species. This greater tolerance of high temperature enables viridescens to utilize warm standingwater habitats unfavorable to other species, and possibly plays an important part in the wide geographic distribution of the species.
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