"Melanoid" common mudpuppy (Necturus maculosus)
I'm not sure if this would technically be a melanoid but maybe some of you salamander pro's can help me out. Last year I captured a different looking common mudpuppy, Necturus maculosus that was dark, charcoal grey and black as opposed to the normal brownish gold with some dark spotting/mottling. It took me awhile to realize but the specimen was completely lacking iridophores or xanthophoes or both if they have both. I'm not a specialist on caudates so forgive me if my terms are incorrect. I have found many many mudpuppies tho, true mudpuppies, not salamander larvae and all had some degree of reflective gold/yellowish brown pigmentation and facial patterning. This specimen was completely smokey/charcoal grey with some large black spot on the body and fine black speckling on the face and throughout but no facial pattern whatsoever. The lack of reflective pigment makes them nearly impossible to see in the water, the first one I netted was not seen, it just ended up in the net. The normal colored mudpuppies blend in extremely well but this one was practically invisible in the water. After thinking on it over the winter, actually it took me a few times looking at my pictures to figure out that this might be a genetic mutant, I realized that if it was genetic a percentage of the eggs expressing the "melanoid" trait must have hatched at some point. If the trait was not a disadvantage, like albinism, there might be more out there since the original speciman was young. This trait actually seemed like it could be beneficial so my hopes were high checking the same spot. After a few unsuccessful attempts, this summer I was able to confirm my suspicion when I captured 2 more "melanoid" specimens on the same day. Other survey attempts were unsuccessful in locating any "melanoids" but at least a dozen mudpuppies were captured and released per occasion. All 3 "melanoids" were dip netted and none were seen before the net was pulled up. I used to use minnow traps but have abandoned that practice due to potential harm to the mudpuppies. I have not been able to find any information regarding any visual mutation of any species of Nectutus. I will post some pictures if anyone is interested or PM me if you have any information on this topic.
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