Found statewide in Tennessee, this large (15 ? 25 cm) attractive salamander has a dark purplish-black, steel gray or black body. There are two irregular rows of bright yellow to yellowish-orange spots starting on the head and extending down the back to the tip of the tail.

These salamanders migrate in large masses in the spring to breeding ponds during the first warm spring rains and on foggy nights when moisture is high. They breed in fish-free vernal ponds, swamps, roadside ditches and flooded tire ruts; they may also breed in permanent ponds where no fish have been introduced. Throughout the rest of the year they live in bottomland forests, floodplains, upland forests and mature deciduous woods containing vernal ponds.