Length 2 – 3 in. (5-7.5 cm.) Although this salamander ranges throughout all of Ohio, it is irregularly distributed and rare over much of this range. All salamanders have four toes on their front feet except the Mudpuppy and the Four-toed Salamander — other salamanders have five toes. The Four-toed Salamander is also readily identified by its striking snow-white belly, boldly speckled with black. The Four-toed Salamander usually lives close to boggy woodland ponds and swamps where it hides beneath moss, logs, rocks, slabs of bark and even leaves. Here it lays its eggs in early spring and remains with them until they hatch. The tiny larvae wriggle their way into the water and remain there until completing metamorphosis later that summer. Four- toed Salamanders often overwinter inside of rotting logs, sometimes in very large congregations.
Text courtesy of the Ohio Division of Wildlife: https://wildlife.ohiodnr.gov/portals/wildlife/pdfs/publications/id%20guides/pub348.pdf
