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Marbled salamander

Ambystoma opacum · Salamanders and newts · Amphibians

Marbled salamander (Ambystoma opacum): Small, stout salamander about 9-10.7 cm long with white or light-grey crossbands across head, back and tail, hence 'banded salamander'. Males are smaller with silvery-white bands that turn very white in the breeding season, and swollen cloacal glands; females are larger with silvery-grey bands. This profile does not establish whether taking it is legal anywhere.

Check rules for a place and date

Certified rules currently represented in Hunt: coverage in development. This is coverage, not a legal answer.

Scientific name
Ambystoma opacum
Family
Ambystomatidae
In North America
Native
Range
NatureServe lists it across the eastern US from New Hampshire and Massachusetts west to Wisconsin, Missouri and Texas and south to Florida; it is not recorded for Canada in that source.
Biology

How to identify it

Small, stout salamander about 9-10.7 cm long with white or light-grey crossbands across head, back and tail, hence 'banded salamander'. [1][2]

Males are smaller with silvery-white bands that turn very white in the breeding season, and swollen cloacal glands; females are larger with silvery-grey bands. [1][2]

Field knowledge

Where it lives

Wooded habitats near swamps and vernal pools, including rocky bluffs, slopes and wooded sand dunes; more tolerant of dry conditions than most salamanders; adults entirely terrestrial. [1][2]

Field knowledge

How it behaves

Solitary and mostly nocturnal; lives under leaf litter or underground (to about 1 m) and may defend its burrow. [1][2]

Breeds in late summer to fall (August-November), earlier in the north; females lay a single clutch of up to about 250 eggs in dry pond basins or depressions under cover and attend them until autumn rains flood the nest. [1][2]

Larvae hatch in fall or as late as spring depending on flooding and metamorphose in spring or early summer; adults are inactive through most of winter. [1][2]

Regulatory handoff

Limited legal take

Legal take of this species exists only under narrow conditions — a quota, a draw, a permit, a small area, or animals released or held on private land — set by the authorities below. Nowhere else is a legal opportunity implied, and Hunt shows one only where a certified rule establishes it.

Where legal take is listed

Being listed is not an open season. Seasons, zones, licences, methods and limits decide whether this animal may be taken on a given day and place — check Hunt or the authority before you go. Listings read 2026-09-30.

Geospatial intelligence

Where it is found

NatureServe lists it across the eastern US from New Hampshire and Massachusetts west to Wisconsin, Missouri and Texas and south to Florida; it is not recorded for Canada in that source.

Biology

Sources

Every claim above is attributed to one of these published sources.

  1. NatureServe · reviewed 2026-09-30

    NatureServe

  2. Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology · reviewed 2026-09-30

    Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology