New Records of Paedomorphs and Overwintering Larvae in Ambystoma tigrinum (Green) (Eastern Tiger Salamander)

Kevin G. Hutcheson^1,*, Benjamin S. Stegenga², Dirk J. Stevenson³, Robert T. Zappalorti⁴, and Jeffrey C. Beane⁵

¹Clemson University Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Lehotsky Hall, Clemson, SC 29634.²The Orianne Society, 11 Old Fruitstand Lane, Tiger, GA 30576.³Altamaha Environmental Consulting, 414 Club Drive, Hinesville, GA 31313. ⁴Herpetological Associates, Inc., 405 Magnolia Road, Pemberton, NJ 08068.⁵North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences, Research Laboratory, MSC #1626, Raleigh, NC 27699. *Corresponding author.

Southeastern Naturalist, Volume 25, Issue 2 (2026): N29–N35

First published early online: 21 June 2026

Abstract
We report notable observations of atypical Ambystoma tigrinum (Eastern Tiger Salamander) larval phenotypes for 3 sites (1 each for Georgia, New Jersey, and North Carolina) located in the Atlantic Coastal Plain. From a review of the literature, we determined that these observations are much farther south and east than previously documented records of paedomorphosis and overwintering larvae in this salamander. These observations have implications for the conservation of locally adapted polymorphic traits for the Eastern Tiger Salamander, and we suggest additional study of these unique Eastern Tiger Salamander phenotypes is warranted.

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