Longtail Salamander Feeding Habits

Carnivorous Amphibians

• Longtail salamanders are carnivorous amphibians that hunt during the night. Adult longtail salamanders need to keep their skin moist so they seek their prey in damp environments on the forest floor. Longtail salamanders are slow-moving amphibians that typically hunt equally slow-moving prey, including slugs, small snails, beetles and earthworms. These carnivorous amphibians are clawless, but possess tiny teeth with which they grip their prey.

Larval Salamander Diet

• Adult male longtail salamanders leave sperm pockets on the substrate of streams and pools, which the female animals collect in their cloacae. The young of this salamander species hatch into the water as larvae. Larvae may feed on their smaller siblings and hunt a variety of isopods and water fleas in their aquatic environment. They also eat mayfly nymphs, fly larvae and tiny aquatic snails.

Homoterans and Dipterans as Prey

• Adult longtail salamanders prey on a variety of insects, as well as worms and other soft-bodied creatures, such as slugs. Homopterans such as leafhoppers, aphids, cicadas, whiteflies, spittlebugs and scale insects are readily taken by longtail salamanders. These creatures are frequently found under rotting bark, or within damp logs and are easy targets for salamanders that hunt in these areas. Longtail salamanders also find many of these insects in rotting leaf matter on the forest floor and on low-lying vegetation. Longtail salamanders eagerly hunt members of the order Diptera, which include midges, flies, mosquitoes and gnats.

Coleopterans and Colembollans as Prey

• Members of this large family of coleopterans live either in water or on the vegetation that borders water and land. A number of the aquatic members of this beetle family will pupate in shallow pits along the banks of streams and ponds and are easy prey to the longtail salamander at these times. Colembollans such as the springtails are abundant soil-dwelling arthropods that live on decaying vegetation and soil fungi. These tiny creatures dry out unless exposed to moist living conditions and are ideal prey for the longtail salamander.