PREY: Larval southern two-lined salamanders are euryphagous feeders.
Prey items usually are invertebrates and include ostracods, copepods,
and insects such as dipterans (chironomids), ephemeropterans, and
coleopterans. Southern two-lined salamander larvae will also prey on
vertebrates.
Adult feeding Behavior included small wood roaches, spiders, ticks,
earthworms, beetles, isopods, millipedes, small snails, grubs, springtails,
and dipteran and hymenopteran insects. Food was found in stomachs
from every month of the year.
PREDATORS: mosquito fish (Gambusia affinis holbrookii) eat two-lined
salamander eggs, brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) and crayfish
(Cambarus bartonii) prey on larvae as do sunfish and darters in streams.
Other predators of two-lined salamanders (including other members of
the E. bislineata complex) include screech owls, common garter snakes
(Thamnophis sirtalis), ring-necked snakes (Diadophis punctatus), and
rainbow trout.
SOUTHERN TWO-LINED
SALAMANDER
PREY: Larvae are gape-limited and size-selective feeders, ingesting a
range of aquatic invertebrates including zooplankton, coleopterans,
isopods, ostracods, odonates, and trichopterans. As they grow in size,
consumption shifts towards larger prey such as chironomids, chaoborids,
and isopods (Nyman, 1991). Predominant prey items of larvae are
cladocerans and copepods, isopods and amphipods. Adults are
generalists on forest floor invertebrates, consuming mollusks, earthworms,
centipedes, millipedes, spiders, and a wide variety of insects.
PREDATORS: Larval wood frogs (Rana sylvatica), centrarchid and cyprinid
fishes, and various larval invertebrate species prey on spotted salamander
eggs. Eastern newt adults will eat spotted salamander eggs, as will
caddisfly and midge (Parachironomus sp.) larvae and other predatory
aquatic insects. Wood frog tadpoles will prey on larvae as will least
sandpipers. Larval predators also include other Ambystoma species; in
regions of sympatry, marbled salamander larvae are already present and
will prey on spotted salamander larvae when they. Newly
metamorphosed animals and breeding adults are preyed on by raccoons
and probably other mammals such as opossums, weasels, and minks.
SPOTTED SALAMANDER
EASTERN NEWT
PREY: Efts forage in the forest floor feeding on invertebrates and have a
slight preference for larger prey. Prey include 58 families from 25 orders of
invertebrates. Efts cluster around and under mushrooms in late August to
September to feed on dipterans attracted to these fungi. Adults are
carnivorous, feeding on any available, palatable prey they can swallow
whole. Prey include zooplankton, amphipods, mayflies, stoneflies,
dipterans, hemipterans, lepidopterans, coleopterans, odonates,
oligochaetes, leeches, snails, clams, small fishes, fish eggs, anuran eggs
and tadpoles, ambystomatid larvae, conspecific embryos and larvae,
and shed skins. Newt predation on the eggs of A. tigrinum can lead to the
exclusion of larvae from breeding ponds (Morin, 1983a). Predation by
newts has been documented to influence anuran community
composition, reducing the size of some populations while freeing others
from competition.
PREDATORS Many animals feed on eastern newts: smallmouth bass, sunfish
(on larvae); snakes (such as hog-nosed), eastern garter snakes and
northern water snakes; snapping and painted turtles; mudpuppies; Lesser;
marbled salamanders. Raccoons (Procyon lotor) are the main
mammalian predator on eastern newts. Leeches appear to be a major
source of adult mortality.
NORTHERN DUSKY
SALAMANDER
PREY Larvae feed on copepods, chironomid midge larvae, plecopteran
nymphs, collembolans, mites, and fingernail clams. Adults eat caddisflies,
larval and adult dipterans, ants, spiders, beetles, sowbugs, caterpillars,
earthworms, amphipods, mites, and molted skins and larvae of northern
dusky salamanders. Also, amphipods, chilopods, orthopterans,
ephemeridans, odonates, hemipterans, lepidopterans, coleopterans,
hymenopterans, dipterans, spiders, and one gastropod, mites,
collembolans, plecopterans, thysanopterans, homopterans, trichopterans,
and sphaeriid clams. Adults eat beetles, lepidopteran larvae, ants,
dipteran larvae, an ichneumonid wasp, and a stonefly nymph. Brooding
females that had ingested oligochaete annelids.
PREDATORS: northern watersnakes and common garter snakes. Blackbellied salamanders (D. quadramaculatus) were reported as predators.
Raccoons, skunks, opossums, and other small mammals, snakes, and birds
probably eat northern dusky salamanders. Brooding females will
cannibalize their own eggs and those of others. Cannibalism by adults on
larvae also.
PREY: Adults will eat lampreys. Prey on invertebrates such as ostracods,
zooplankton such as copepods and cladocerans, snails, annelids, fishes,
other species of salamanders, adult eastern worm snakes, isopods, slugs,
spiders, crayfish, centipedes, millipedes, and insects such as mayflies, true
flies, beetles, dragonfly and damselfly naiads, hellgrammites, caterpillars,
and caddisflies.
PREDATORS: It is not known whether or not fish prey on Neuse River
waterdogs, but workers have speculated that their inactivity during
warmer months is in part due to the avoidance of fishes.
THREATS: Pesticide and PCB residues.
NEUSE RIVER WATERDOG
mayflies
stoneflies
copepods
small wood roaches
spiders
ticks
earthworms
beetles
isopods
millipedes
small snails
grubs
zooplankton
isopods
mollusks
centipedes
leeches
fish eggs
anuran eggs
tadpoles
shed skins
caterpillar
mosquito fish
brook trout
small-mouth bass
crayfish
sunfish
darters
screech owls
hog-nosed snake
common garter snakes
northern water snake
ring-necked snakes
Larval wood
frogs
raccoons
opossums
weasels
minks
snapping turtle
painted turtle
urbanization
cars
leeches
cats
cannibalism
pesticides