Initially the salamanders foraged indiscriminately in daylight or in darkness. Later, as they became fat, they avoided high light intensity and were active only at night or under artificial light of low intensity. The latter pattern of activity is probably typical of the pattern they maintain under natural conditions. Certainly we never saw individuals abroad in daylight at Cloudcroft, yet under favorable environmental conditions they were to be found in sites that required considerable movement over open areas of the ground surface. For several months two individuals of _Eurycea longicauda_ were kept in with _A. hardii_. Foraging of these two plethodontids is nearly identical, but the tongue of an adult _Eurycea_ can be extended somewhat more than one-half inch in capturing flies; for _A. hardii_ this distance is usually less than one-quarter inch. The relatively short tongue of _A. hardii_ can be correlated with its life in restricted, subsurface chambers, where prey most frequently is close to salamanders; _E. longicauda_ inhabits significantly more open sites. Parasites Thirty of the adult _Aneides_ collected were examined for parasites; most were parasitized by two species of nematodes, _Oswaldocruzia_ sp. and _Thelandros_ sp. The former is found in the anterior part of the small intestine and occasionally in the stomach, and the latter occurs in the rectum. There were no gross intestinal pathological changes in the salamanders resulting from parasitism. In fact, no pathological or structural abnormalities were noted in any of the salamanders examined. We believe the two nematodes are well-tolerated by the salamander. Table 2.--Occurrence of Parasitic Nematodes in Aneides hardii =========================+=============+==============+=================== | | | | | Number of | Per cent of | | nematodes | nematodes that | Per cent of | per host | were immature | salamanders +-------+------+-------+----------- | infected | | | | | | range | mean | July | Aug.-Sept. -------------------------+-------------+-------+------+-------+----------- | | | | | _Oswaldocruzia_ sp. | 83 | 2-15 | 3.6 | 100 | 20 | | | | | _Thelandros_ sp. | 90 | 1-17 | 3.3 | 64.6 | 5.7 -------------------------+-------------+-------+------+-------+-----------