Salamander Research in the Houck/Arnold Laboratory

Salamander research in our laboratory focused on communication between sexual partners and how it evolves.  We especially focused on chemical communication via protein pheromones delivered to the female by the male.  The images on this page  illlustrate various aspects of salamander courtship research in the Houck/Arnold laboratory from 1974 to about 2010: salamander subjects and their reproduction, field sites, experimental procedures in the lab, and some of our many collaborators.  Videos of salamander courtship behavior on this playlist were videotaped or filmed by individuals in the Houck/Arnold lab, unless otherwise noted.  See Lynne Houck’s Google Scholar page for articles on salmander courtship pheromones.  Carousel (below) shows investigators and salamander courtship photos.  To learn about ongoing research on salamander reproductive proteins, visit Damien Wilburn’s website.

 
Photography setup at Highlands Biiological Station, NC
Slapping delivery of male courtship pheromone in Plethodon shermani
Tall-straddling walk (TSW)
Spermatophore deposition (SD)
Female begins to walk over the spermatophnore
Positioning of the female over the spermatophore (POS)
Plethodon shermani embryos inside their egg capsules
female Plethodon yonahlossee
Lynne Houck applying courtship pheromone to female Plethodon shermani
Alison Bell, Lynne Houck and Stephanie Rollmann applying pheromone/control to Plethodon shermani
Stephanie Rollmann, Alison Bell and Lynne Houck observing experimental tests of courtship pheromone effects
Scratching delivery of male courtship pheromone in Eurycea bislineata
Eurycea guttolineata
Male Desmognathus wrighti biting to deliver courtship pheromone to female (on left)
Desmognathus orestes in position used for snapping delivery of courtship pheromone
Sperm transfer sequence in Desmognathus orestes: TOP: Male lifts off of the spermatophore and moves forward (note thin mucous strand that runs from the spermatophore cap to the male's vent). MIDDLE: Female has moved over the spermatophore which is now about midway on her venter. BOTTOM: The female has inserted the spermatophore into her cloaca
Desmognathus fuscus brooding her eggs under a rock
Joe Bernardo, Lynne Houck and Steve Tilley on Whiteside Mtn, NC
Steve Tilley, Paul Verrell and Steve Arnold on a Desmognathus expedition in the Blue Ridge Mtns
Lynne at one of her Guatemalan field sites in 1974
Lynne searching for Bolitoglossa under banana leaves
Bolitoglossa rostrata, which resides under rocks and inside rotten logs; Lynne's main study animal
Lynne with an orchid, habitat for some arboreal salamanders
Dendrotriton bromeliacius, a bromeliad-dwelling plethodontid salamander
Steve, Karen Kiemnec-Tyburczy and Sarah searching for crevice-dwelling salamanders
Lynne Houck, Sarah Eddy, Damien Wilburn, Kari Doty, and Rick Feldhoff at Deep Gap, NC
Steve, Karen and Sarah exulting over newly discovered Hellbender
Hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis)
Sorting newly captured Plethodon shermani
Lynne Houck & Sarah Eddy with newly washed observation boxes
Lynne Houck and Steve Arnold celebrating a wedding anniversary at "On the Verandah", a restaurant in Highlands, NC
Rick Feldhof with mental gland extract
Pam Feldhof doing mental gland surgery
Pleurodeles waltl, male below
Salamandra salamandra, male below
Taricha granulosa, male on top
Triturus carnifex, male in front
Euproctus asper, female with orange venter
Euproctus montanus, male on left
Female Euproctus montanus brooding her eggs which are attached to the underside of a rock.
Steve Arnold exhults after finding Euproctus montanus in the field in Corsica
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The comparative analysis of salamander courtship sequences (below) is taken from Arnold et al.(2017).

 
Comparative analysis