Family Plethodontidae: Lungless Salamanders
Order Caudata: Salamanders
Description: A family of mostly small, slender, woodland salamanders whose defining characteristic is a shallow groove in the skin running between each nostril and the upper lip. Called ?lungless salamanders? because all members of this family lack lungs, breathing instead through their skins and the mucous membranes of the mouth and throat. Eurycea live in or near streams (long-tailed and cave salamanders are essentially terrestrial as adults), lay their eggs in water, and spend as many as two years as aquatic, gilled larvae. Plethodon are fully terrestrial, laying their eggs on land, developing fully within the egg, and bypassing the gilled aquatic stage. Fertilization is internal in both genera. Most members of this family are associated with steep topography (some restricted to rocky outcroppings) in mesic, rocky woodlands, and avoid seasonally flooded bottomland forests. Adult members of this family eat small invertebrates, including insects, spiders, pill bugs, centipedes, millipedes, spiders, earthworms, and snails. Eurycea larvae eat aquatic insect larvae, copepods, and other crustaceans.
Family Plethodontidae, Lungless Salamanders
Key Characteristics: Markings variable; light line extending from eye to angle of jaw; tail keeled.
Habitat: Almost always found in or within close proximity to moving water; mainly mountain brooks, seepages and springs.
Key Characteristics: Markings variable; light line extending from eye to angle of jaw; tail rounded.
Habitat: Almost always found in or within close proximity to moving water; mainly mountain brooks, seepages and springs.
Habitat: Under rocks, logs, and leaf litter adjacent to or in small rocky streams and seeps in mesic forest.
Key Characteristics: Yellowish or orangish background; black vermiculations on back and sides become vertical bars on sides of tail; tail long.
Habitat: Around rock outcrops or caves (usually in the vicinity of creeks and springs) in deeply dissected, forested landscapes. Often found under rocks and logs.
Habitat: Under rocks and logs on moist wooded hillsides and ravines. Retreat underground or to more mesic environments during the summer.
Habitat: Fairly extensive tracts of moist, closed-canopy forests, usually associated with rocky outcrops, streams, and steep topography. Occasionally found in more open habitats, but avoid seasonally flooded lowland forest.
