Reproduction

Eurycea tridentifera are aquatic amphibians which means the majority of their breeding is in cave water pools. Since they are a blind species, well-developed chemoreceptors are used to find mating partners.

Because they are a recently discovered species and still being researched today, not much more is known about the reproduction of Comal blind salamanders. However, we can look at the behaviors of other cave salamanders living in alike environments and predict similar behaviors.

Eurycea lucifuga, more commonly known as the cave salamander, is another type of salamander that shows similar living conditions and traits to the Comal blind salamander. Eurycea lucifuga live a biphasic life cycle. This means part of life is lived with a tadpole-like larvae morphology, and then the organism will grow into an adult stage (Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency). These cave salamanders lay jelly-like eggs below layers of gravel within the cave water pools. Complying with thei biphasic life cycle, these eggs give rise to gilled larvae which will remain underwater for 1-2 years. Since Eurycea tridentifera exhibits similar living conditions to Eurycea lucifuga, they likely exhibit similar reproduction strategies.

The clutch size of the eggs are also not precisely known. After an experiment conducted by a biologist that crossed this species and Valdina Farms salamanders, the results showed that 7-18 eggs are produced, and the eggs hatch when they are 7 mm wide. The results of this experiment also showed that all of the eggs hatched, but since the salamanders are not a dense species, the numbers of eggs in a clutch are more than likely on smaller side (Amphibia).

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