A Guide to the Amphibians
and Reptiles of California

Aneides flavipunctatus flavipunctatus - Speckled Black Salamander

Click on a picture for a larger view

Range in California: Red

Green: Santa Cruz Black Salamander

Dot-locality Range Map

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Central Lineage

Large-spotted adult, Mendocino County

Juvenile, Large-spotted form,
Mendocino County

Large-spotted adult, Mendocino County

Large-spotted sub-adult,
Mendocino County

Underside of large-spotted adult, Mendocino County

Juvenile, Large-spotted form,
Mendocino County

Large-spotted adult, Mendocino County

Large-spotted adult from Lake County.
© Mike Spencer

Large-spotted adult from the inner Coast Range, Lake County
© John Stephenson

Three views of the same large-spotted juvenile from Mendocino County (with a sympatric adult in the third picture.)

Large-spotted sub-adult,
Mendocino County

Solid black adult, Mendocino County

Lightly spotted adult and juvenile, coastal Mendocino County

Juvenile, solid black form, Mendocino County

Black Salamanders have toes with rounded tips.
Compare with Aneides vagrans, the Wandering Salamander, and
Aneides ferreus, the Clouded Salamander,
which have toes with squared-off tips.

Habitat

Habitat, forest clearing,
Mendocino county

Habitat, Mendocino County

Creekside talus habitat,
Mendocino County

Northwest Lineage

Adult, frosted form, Humboldt County

Adult and juvenile, frosted form, Humboldt County

Sub-adult, frosted form, Humboldt County

Adult, frosted form, Humboldt County

Juvenile, frosted form, Humboldt County

Fine-spotted adult, Siskiyou County

Fine-spotted adult, Siskiyou County
© 2004 Tim Burkhardt

Sub-adult, Del Norte County
© Alan Barron

Adult, Del Norte County
© Alan Barron

Underside of adult, Del Norte County
© Alan Barron

Juvenile, Del Norte County
© Alan Barron

Juvenile, Humboldt County

Juvenile, Humboldt County, with juvenile Ensatina for comparison.

Habitat

Streamside habitat, Humboldt county

Redwoods habitat, Humboldt County

Rock talus habitat, Siskiyou County

Shasta Lineage

Small-spotted adult, Shasta County

Adult, eastern Tehama County, just north of Red Bluff, which should represent a range extension for this species.
© Ryan Henson

Habitat

Habitat, Shasta County

The Southern Disjunct Lineage is shown here as Aneides flavipunctatus niger - Santa Cruz Black Salamander.

Short Videos

A Black salamander is discovered under a rock on a sunny late November afternoon in Mendocino County. Several adults and a juvenile move slowly and with amazing bursts of speed.

Sprinting Black salamanders from Humboldt County.

A black salamander in Mendocino County.

Description

Size

Adults measure 2 - 3 3/4 inches long (5.1 - 9.5 cm) from snout to vent, and up to 5.5 inches (14 cm) total length.

Appearance

A medium-sized salamander with two nasolabial grooves and 14 - 16 well-defined costal grooves. Dorsal coloring varies depending on the locality - it can be solid black, black with fine white specks, black with large white spots, black with pale yellow spots, black frosted with green or gray, or black with many small white spots. The venter is greyish black. Males have a broader head than females.
Young are black with a brassy or greenish coloration and yellow at the base of the limbs.

Behavior and Natural History

A member of family Plethodontidae, the Plethodontid or Lungless Salamanders.
Lungless Salamanders breathe through their skin which requires them to live in damp environments on land and to move about on the ground only during times of high humidity. (In California, they do not inhabit streams or bodies of water, but they are capable of surviving for some time if they fall into water.)
Lungless salamanders are distinguished by their naso-labial grooves, which are vertical slits between the nostrils and upper lip that are lined with glands used in chemoreception. All California Lungless Salamanders lay eggs in moist places on land. The young hatch from the egg directly into a tiny terrestrial salamander with the same body form as an adult. (They do not hatch in the water and begin their lives as tiny swimming larvae breathing through gills, as occurs with other types of salamanders.)Adapted for climbing with long toes and rounded prehensile tail, but mostly terrestrial. Adults forage for small invertebrates on the ground at night during wet weather. May be active along streams all year at the southern part of its range, but most stay underground during dry periods. Adults appear to be agressively territorial. Black Salamanders have lived as long as 20 years in captivity.

When threatened, juveniles typically remain still while adults attempt to flee. Other defense tactics include defensive posturing - raising the body, lowering the head, and waving the tail, jumping, releasing noxious sticky skin secretions, and biting.

Diet

Diet consists of a variety of small invertebrates, including millipedes, ants and termites. As salamanders grow larger, they eat fewer, but larger prey items.

Reproduction and Young

Reproduction is terrestrial. Courtship and breeding behavior is not well known. Breeding males have a well-developed mental gland. Females probably lay from 8 - 25 eggs in moist cavities belowthe ground in July and August. Eggs are attached by peduncles. Females stay with the eggs until they hatch. Young develop completely in the egg and hatch fully formed.

Range

Endemic to California and a small area in extreme southwest Oregon. Occurs from Sonoma county north along the coast and coast ranges to southwest Oregon in Jackson and Josephine Counties, and east to near Mt. Shasta.

Habitat

Occurs in mixed deciduous woodland, lowland coniferous forests, coastal grasslands. Found under rocks near streams, in talus, under damp logs, and other objects.
Most common at low elevations, but found from near sea level to over 5,500 ft. (1,700 meters.)

Taxonomic Notes

Aneides flavipunctatus occurs in three geographically isolated regions. The southern population in the Santa Cruz region is currently recognized as the subspecies A. f. niger by some researchers, or as the species A. niger by others. The group south of Mt. Shasta is also isolated from populations to the west.

In a study published in 2007 ¹, Rissler and Apodaca determined that even though there is little morphological divergence across the species, the use of mtDNA analyses and ecological modeling indicates that there are four separate main lineages of A. flavipunctatus which eventually should be given full species status: A Southern Disjunct lineage on the San Francisco Peninsula and in the Santa Cruz Mountains; a Shasta lineage in the Mount Shasta region; a Central lineage on the north coast and north coast ranges north of San Francisco Bay; and a Northwest lineage in the northwest corner of the state including Humboldt, Del Norte, and Siskiyou Counties. There is another population within the Central Lineage which is also distinct, but they do not discuss this in detail. They recommended that the Shasta and Southern lineages be elevated to species status, but that more work is needed to determine the southern extent of the Northwest lineage. Once that has been determined, they recommend that the Northwest lineage also be elevated to species status. The new names will most likely be

Aneides flavipunctatus for the Central Lineage,

Aneides niger, for the Southern Disjunct lineage, and

Aneides iëcanus, for the Shasta lineage.

A new name or names will be given to the other lineage(s).

Tentative distribution map of the four main lineages of Black Salamanders.

Conservation Issues (Conservation Status)

Disappeared from many areas of their range. Much prime habitat has been lost when it has been converted to agricultural use, especially vineyards, and probably through logging of forests.

Taxonomy
Family	Plethodontidae	Lungless Salamanders
Genus	Aneides	Climbing Salamanders
Species	flavipunctatus	Black Salamander
Subspecies	flavipunctatus	Speckled Black Salamander
Original Description
Aneides flavipunctatus - (Strauch, 1870) - Mem. Acad. Sci. St. Petersburg, Ser. 7, Vol. 16, No. 4, p. 71 from Original Description Citations for the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America © Ellin Beltz
Meaning of the Scientific Name
Aneides: Greek - lacking form or shape. flavipunctatus: Latin - yellow spotted - refers to conspicuous white or yellow spots on dark background. from Scientific and Common Names of the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America - Explained © Ellin Beltz
Alternate Names
Aneides flavipunctatus - Black Salamander Aneides flavipunctatus - Speckled Black Salamander
Related or Similar California Salamanders
Santa Cruz Black Salamander Arboreal Salamander Wandering Salamander Clouded Salamander
More Information and References
Natureserve Explorer California Dept. of Fish and Game AmphibiaWeb Stebbins, Robert C., and McGinnis, Samuel M. Field Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles of California: Revised Edition (California Natural History Guides) University of California Press, 2012. Stebbins, Robert C. California Amphibians and Reptiles. The University of California Press, 1972. Stebbins, Robert C. A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians. 3rd Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003. Behler, John L., and F. Wayne King. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians. Alfred A. Knopf, 1992. Powell, Robert., Joseph T. Collins, and Errol D. Hooper Jr. A Key to Amphibians and Reptiles of the Continental United States and Canada. The University Press of Kansas, 1998. Bartlett, R. D. & Patricia P. Bartlett. Guide and Reference to the Amphibians of Western North America (North of Mexico) and Hawaii. University Press of Florida, 2009. Bishop, Sherman C. Handbook of Salamanders. Cornell University Press, 1943. Lannoo, Michael (Editor). Amphibian Declines: The Conservation Status of United States Species. University of California Press, June 2005. Petranka, James W. Salamanders of the United States and Canada. Smithsonian Institution, 1998. Corkran, Charlotte & Chris Thoms. Amphibians of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. Lone Pine Publishing, 1996. Jones, Lawrence L. C. , William P. Leonard, Deanna H. Olson, editors. Amphibians of the Pacific Northwest. Seattle Audubon Society, 2005. Leonard et. al. Amphibians of Washington and Oregon. Seattle Audubon Society, 1993. Nussbaum, R. A., E. D. Brodie Jr., and R. M. Storm. Amphibians and Reptiles of the Pacific Northwest. Moscow, Idaho: University Press of Idaho, 1983. ¹ Rissler, Leslie J., and Joseph J. Apodaca. Adding More Ecology into Species Delimitation: Ecological Niche Models and Phylogeography Help Define Cryptic Species in the Black Salamander (Aneides flavipunctatus). Syst. Biol. 56(6):924–942, 2007

Conservation Status
The following status listings come from the Special Animals List which is published by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. This salamander is not included on the Special Animals List, meaning there are no significant conservation concerns for it in California according to the California Department of Fish and Game.
Organization	Status Listing
U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA)	None
California Endangered Species Act (CESA)	None
California Department of Fish and Wildlife	None
Bureau of Land Management	None
USDA Forest Service	None
Natureserve Global Conservation Status Ranks
World Conservation Union - IUCN Red List

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