Dawn Craft, age 11, of Harrisburg, Pa., for her question:

HOW LONG WILL A MUD PUPPY BECOME?

Mud puppy is the common name for any of four species of aquatic salamanders. They are found in some rivers and lakes of the eastern and central United States. Mud puppies can attain a length of about 17 inches.

Mud puppies have three pairs of bushy external gills, by which they breathe underwater, and a complete set of lungs that they do not use.

The animals have flattened, rectangular heads, dark brown spotted bodies and laterally compressed tails.

Sluggish in disposition, the mud puppy spend most of the day in the mud, crawling about on its four weak legs. It subsists on aquatic worms, insects, larvae, fish eggs and thin shelled shellfish.

The female mud puppy lays 60 to 70 eggs singly in shallow water in late spring. The newly hatched young, which closely resemble the parents, are about three quarters of an inch long.