Stats

Lifespan

5-10 yrs

Size

Small

Diet

Insectivore

Activity

Nocturnal

Social

Solitary

Biome

Temperate forest

Range

North America

Movement

Walking

Breeding

Egg-laying

Defense

Camouflage

Status

Uncommon

About

A pencil-thin lungless salamander of coastal southern California and Baja California, so slender it is often mistaken for a worm. Like all plethodontids it has no lungs whatsoever — it breathes entirely through its moist skin and mouth lining.

Life cycle

1. 1.
   egg

   A jelly-coated egg is laid in water and develops over days into an aquatic larva.
2. 2.
   tadpole

   A gilled tadpole swims and grazes on algae, slowly absorbing its tail and growing limbs.
3. 3.
   juvenile

   A near-adult amphibian leaves the water with new legs and lungs, smaller than the mature form.
4. 4.
   adult

   Fully grown at adult size, breathing air.

Learn more

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Taxonomy

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Amphibia

Order

Caudata

Family

Plethodontidae

Genus

Batrachoseps

Species

Batrachoseps nigriventris