Stats

Lifespan: 10-20 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 small, lungless salamander of Appalachian mountain forests, it is more terrestrial than most of its dusky salamander relatives and can be told apart by its rounded, not keeled, tail as it forages far from water beneath damp rocks and logs.

Life cycle

1.
egg
A jelly-coated egg is laid in water and develops over days into an aquatic larva.
2.
tadpole
A gilled tadpole swims and grazes on algae, slowly absorbing its tail and growing limbs.
3.
juvenile
A near-adult amphibian leaves the water with new legs and lungs, smaller than the mature form.
4.
adult
Fully grown at adult size, breathing air.

Learn more

Taxonomy

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Caudata
Family: Plethodontidae
Genus: Desmognathus
Species: Desmognathus ochrophaeus