Field notes on the reproduction of the Cheat Mountain Salamander (Plethodon nettingi).

Abstract

In 1989, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated the Cheat MountainSalamander as a federally threatened species. I have collected data on this speciesover a 39-year period spanning from 1976 through 2015. Sexually mature malesdisplay two secondary sexual characteristics, squared snouts and swollen cloacae.Squared snouts are usually first observed in late July and early August. Cloacae startto swell in late August and early September. By mid-September, both characteristicsare obvious and these traits continue to be observable until late May of the ensuingyear. Mature ovarian eggs are visible through the body wall of sexually maturefemales in late August or early September. Gravid females, i.e., those with matureovarian eggs, are easily distinguished from nongravid females in September, October, and November or until they submerge into their winter subterraneous refugia. Gravid females continue to be easily identified the ensuing spring after emergence from winter refugia to early June. The latest date I have found gravid females in the spring/summer is June 10. By early June, gravid females have deposited their eggs and are tending them in nests under rocks, logs, or in logs. I have observed nests with eggs and tending females from May 15 to July 26. I have found neonates in nests with females in September, indicating that eggs hatch in September.