Caudata Eurycea longicauda -- Long-tailed Salamander
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Purple shade indicates vouchered specimens. Light blue (cyan)
shade indicates photographic records. Yellow shade indicates verified
sighting. Slanted hatch indicates pre-1980 records only
NOTE: Not all specimens upon which these maps are based have been verified.
Key Characters: Slender yellow or orange body; sides of long, slender tail with dark vertical bars or uniformly black.
Similar Species: Cave salamander, southern two-lined salamander.
Subspecies: Longtail salamander, E. l. longicauda; dark-sided salamander, E. l. melanopleura.
Description: A long (up to 16 cm TL), slender lemon-yellow to yellowish orange salamander with scattered black blotches along back and sides. Belly yellow to cream and usually unspotted. Costal grooves and nasolabial grooves present. Eurycea l. melanopleura is more darkly pigmented, with yellow-green to yellow-brown ground coloring and sides of body and tail uniformly dark. Larva slender with low tail fin, long gill branches, dark flecks on the anterior third of throat, and broad pale stripe down back.
Habitat: Near cool streams and spring seeps in forests of dissected, rocky uplands and valley edges. Dark-sided subspecies partial to twilight zones of caves, sometimes deep within caves and along surface streams nearby.
Natural History: Adults emerge from rocky refugia at night, especially after rain, and feed on terrestrial insects, spiders, centipedes, snails, and earthworms. They are sometimes seen on tree trunks, damp leaves, rock faces, or even on roads during these forays. Eggs laid in wet underground crevices in late summer or autumn. Hatchlings appear in late winter or early spring and larvae transform in summer.
Status: Locally abundant.