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A tadpole or polliwog (also spelled pollywog) is the larval stage in the biological life cycle of an amphibian. Most tadpoles are fully aquatic, though some species of amphibians have tadpoles that are terrestrial. Tadpoles have some fish-like features that may not be found in adult amphibians such as a lateral line, gills and swimming tails.
Ambystoma talpoideum, the mole salamander, is a species of salamander found in much of the eastern and central United States, from Florida to Texas, north to Illinois, east to Kentucky, with isolated populations in Virginia and Indiana. Older sources often refer to this species as the tadpole salamander because some individuals remain in a ...
Most species (e.g. Blyth's river frog L. blythii or the fanged river frog L. macrodon) develop normally, with free-swimming tadpoles that eat food. [5] The tadpoles of the corrugated frog (L. laticeps) are free-swimming but endotrophic, meaning they do not eat but live on stored yolk until metamorphosis into frogs. [5]
The species is terrestrial, but returns to the water for breeding, where egg masses are laid onto rocks in streams. The quite muscular tadpoles are carnivorous and feature several rows of horned teeth. Adults feed on slugs, myriapods, spiders, beetles, and grasshoppers.
Adults hunt in spring and summer, but only at night or during light rains. Spadefoot tadpoles are dimorphic. Within a cohort, some tadpoles have large mouthparts, while others have much smaller mouthparts. As well as consuming other types of food, large-mouthed individuals are cannibalistic, swallowing other tadpoles whole. [4] [10]
After a few days, they become carnivorous and eat animals. [10] Tadpoles sometimes resort to cannibalism to survive. After multiple experiments, Paul Székely, Marian Tudor, and Dan Cogalniceanu concluded that tadpole development is influenced by hydroperiod, or the period in which an area is full of water.
Indirana semipalmata tadpole,on a plastic sheet used to cover a shed from, Hosamata, Puttur, Karnataka, India Tadpole from Coorg, India on tree bark. The ecology and biology of Indirana semipalmata has not been extensively studied. It is a terrestrial species generally found on vegetation beside the banks of streams and rivers (riparian habitats).
This causes the tadpole to be unable to move away and ultimately die at the hands of this insect. Physical contact with this ant species is the only thing that causes tadpoles to attempt to flee through jumping, therefore showing that this species has no specialized way to avoid this predation. [11]