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Adult, Santa Clara County |
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Adult, Santa Clara County |
Adult, Santa Clara County |
Adult, Santa Clara County |
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Juvenile, Santa Clara County |
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Adult with juvenile, Santa Clara County |
Habitat |
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Habitat, Santa Cruz County
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Habitat, San Mateo County |
Habitat, Santa Cruz County |
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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) in total length. |
| Appearance |
| A medium-sized plethodontid salamander, breathing through thin moist skin instead of lungs. Nasolabial grooves and well-defined costal grooves. Dorsal coloring is solid black, with a few fine white specks. Young are black with white speckles. Males have a broader head than females. |
| Behavior |
| Lives in moist places on land. Adults forage for small invertebrates on the ground at night during wet weather. May be active along streams all year but stays underground during dry periods. Adapted for climbing with long toes and rounded tail, but mostly terrestrial. |
| Diet |
| Most likely consumes a variety of small invertebrates. |
| Reproduction |
| Females lay and brood eggs in moist places on land in summer. There is no published information on the breeding season or courtship behavior. Breeding males have a well-developed mental gland. Young hatch fully formed. |
| Range |
| This subspecies is endemic to California, with a limited range west of the San Fracisco Bay and south of the San Francisco peninsusla from Santa Cruz County and western Santa Clara County, north to southern San Mateo County. |
| Habitat |
| Occurs in mixed deciduous woodland, coniferous forests, coastal grasslands. Found under rocks near streams, in talus, under damp logs, and other objects. Found from near sea level to at least 1,500 ft. (personal observation) probably higher. |
| Taxonomic Notes |
This taxa is also recognized as a full species, Aneides niger.
It is also recognized as Aneides flavipunctatus.
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 map of the four main lineages of Black Salamanders.
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| Conservation Issues (Conservation Status) |
| None |
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Taxonomy |
| Family |
Plethodontidae |
Lungless Salamanders |
| Genus |
Aneides |
Climbing Salamanders |
| Species |
flavipunctatus |
Black Salamander |
Subspecies
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niger |
Santa Cruz Black Salamander |
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Original Description |
Aneides flavipunctatus - (Strauch, 1870) - Mem. Acad. Sci. St. Petersburg, Ser. 7, Vol. 16, No. 4, p. 71
Aneides flavipunctatus niger - Myers and Maslin, 1948 - Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, Vol. 61, p. 132
from Original Description Citations for the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America © Ellin Beltz
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Meaning of the Scientific Name |
Aneides: Greek - lacking form or shape
niger: Latin - black
from Scientific and Common Names of the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America - Explained © Ellin Beltz
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Alternate Names |
Aneides flavipunctatus - Black Salamander
Aneides niger (full species)
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Related or Similar California Salamanders |
Aneides flavipunctatus flavipunctatus - Speckled Black Salamander
Aneides lugubris - Arboreal Salamander
Aneides vagrans - Wandering Salamander
Aneides ferreus - Clouded Salamander
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More Information and References |
Natureserve Explorer
California Dept. of Fish and Game
AmphibiaWeb
Stebbins, Robert C. A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians. 3rd Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003.
Behler, John L., & F. Wayne King. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians. Alfred A. Knopf, 1992.
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.
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
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The following status listings come from the Special Animals List which is published several times each year by the California Department of Fish and Game.
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.
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Organization
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Status Listing
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| U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) |
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| California Endangered Species Act (CESA) |
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| California Department of Fish and Game |
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| Bureau of Land Management |
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| USDA Forest Service |
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| Natureserve Global Conservation Status Ranks |
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World Conservation Union - IUCN Red List
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