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Large adult, Los Angeles County |
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Adult, Los Angeles County |
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Adult, San Diego County |
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Adult, San Diego County
Courtesy of Jeff Lemm |
Adult and juvenile, San Diego County |
Adult, Los Angeles County |
Adult, Riverside County |
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Adult, Los Angeles County |
Adult, Los Angeles County |
Underside of B. m. major |
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| Comparisons With Other Species of Slender Salamanders |
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Comparison of B. m. major (bottom) and B. nigriventris.
Note the larger body and legs of B. m. major. B. nigriventris is dark in color underneath, while B. m. major is light gray. |
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Comparison of B. m. major (left) and
B. gabrieli (collected with a permit.)
Note the darker color of B. gabrieli and larger limbs, feet and toes. |
Habitat |
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Coastal Sage Scrub habitat,
San Diego County
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Habitat, San Diego County |
Habitat, Riverside County |
Habitat, Los Angeles County
riparian canyon |
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Habitat, Los Angeles County
riparian canyon |
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| Short Video |
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A Garden Slender Salamander is discovered under some
trash in a Los Angeles County canyon. |
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Description |
Size |
| Adults are 1 1/4 - 2 1/3 inches long (3.2 - 5.9 cm) from snout to vent, and about twice that length with a full tail. |
| Appearance |
A small slim salamander, with relatively short limbs and 17-21 costal grooves. There are 9-12 costal folds between adpressed limbs. A narrow head, long slender body, very long tail, and conspicuous costal and caudal grooves, give this species the worm-like appearance typical of most Slender Salamanders, however it is larger with a more robust body than most of the other slender salamander species. There are four toes on the front and hind feet, which is typical of Slender Salamanders. (Other California salamanders have five toes on the hind feet.)
Color varies, but is often gray above with a reddish, pinkish, or coppe color on the tail, snout and shoulders, sometimes forming blotches. Some populations are much darker (uplands of Peninsular Range). Salamanders from near El Rosario, Baja California, are considerably paler. Dorsal stripe is often obscure.
Belly is light grey with a weak network of melanophores.The tale is typically paler in color then the belly. In darker populations, the belly is more densly marked. |
| 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.)Active on rainy or wet nights when temperatures are moderate. Activity period is October through May, depending on precipitation, but may continue year-round in irrigated areas.
Commonly found under rocks, logs, bark, leaf litter, and other surface debris, this salamander also retreats into animal burrows, earthworm tunnels, and crevices in the soil.
Typical of most Slender Salamanders, when disturbed, this salamander may coil up and remain still, relying on cryptic coloring to avoid detection. It might also uncoil quickly and spring away, repeatedly bouncing over the ground, or drop its tail to distract a predator. The tail is easily broken off, but it can be regenerated.
Feeding behavior is not well known, but other Batrachoseps species are sit-and-wait predators that use a projectile tongue to catch prey.
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| Diet |
| Feeds primarily on small arthropods and other small invertebrates. |
| Reproduction and Young |
Reproduction is terrestrial. Breeding probably occurs from November to January, during the rainy season. Females lay strings of up to 10-20 eggs under stones or moist debris. Communal nesting is likely.
Young hatch fully formed. Hatchlings have been observed in January, and as late as April. |
| Range |
Endemic to California and northern Baja California. Found in the coastal interior of Southern California from the foothills of the Santa Monica, San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mountains, south into Baja California to the vicinity of El Rosario. Also found in a few desert localities where they have extended their range eastward through San Gorgonio Pass, at Cabezon and Snow Creek Village, Riverside County, and into the city of Palm Springs They have also been found east of Jacumba in San Diego County. Also found on Santa Catalina Island, the Coronados Islands, and Todos Santo Island.
Elevational range extends from sea level to around 4000 ft. on Mt. Palomar, San Diego County
Introduced into the San Joaquin Valley at Hanford in Kings County where they live in irrigated residential gardens. These salamanders, or their eggs, may have been accidentally transferred to the region in shipments of plants from commercial nurseries in southern California, where the salamanders are native.
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| Habitat |
| Habitat includes coastal sage scrub and oak woodland in the coastal interior, mixed coniferous forest at high elevations, and on north facing rocky slopes in desert localities. This species is often found in suburban gardens where they benefit from the moisture from irrigation. |
| Taxonomic Notes |
B. m. major is allied to the pacificus group of slender salamanders. It had long been placed as a subspecies of B. pacificus, until recent studies showed it was distinct.
In 2000, using DNA studies, Jockusch and Wake * reduced Batrachoseps aridus to a subspecies of Batrachoseps major - B. m. aridus, making the rest of B. major, the subspecies B. major major.
Some texts do not use this taxonomy because B. aridus is a federally-protected endangered species
Salamanders from the Sierra San Pedro Martir in Baja California have been included with the species B. major, but current studies suggests that they are a distinct species.
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| Conservation Issues (Conservation Status) |
| The range of this species has been significantly fragmented and much of the habitat has been destroyed due to land development. |
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Taxonomy |
| Family |
Plethodontidae |
Lungless Salamanders |
| Genus |
Batrachoseps |
Slender Salamanders |
| Species |
major |
Garden Slender Salamander |
Subspecies
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major |
Garden Slender Salamander |
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Original Description |
Camp, 1915 - Univ. California Publ. Zool., Vol. 12, No. 12, p. 327
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Meaning of the Scientific Name |
Batrachoseps: Greek - amphibian, frog lizard - describes lizard-like appearance.
major: Latin - larger or greater (it was thought to be the largest Batrachoseps.)
from Scientific and Common Names of the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America - Explained © Ellin Beltz
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Alternate Names |
Batrachoseps major - Garden Slender Salamander
Formerly known as Batrachoseps pacificus
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Similar Neighboring Salamanders |
B. nigriventris
B. m. aridus
B. pacificus
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More Information and References |
Natureserve Explorer
California Dept. of Fish and Game
AmphibiaWeb
SDNHM
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.
* Jockusch, Elizabeth and David Wake. Detecting Species Borders Using Diverse Data Sets. Pp. 95-119. In Bruce, Jaeger and Houck (editors). The Biology of Plethodontid Salamanders. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York, 2000.
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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) |
None |
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| California Endangered Species Act (CESA) |
None |
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| California Department of Fish and Game |
None |
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| Bureau of Land Management |
None |
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| USDA Forest Service |
None |
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| Natureserve Global Conservation Status Ranks |
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World Conservation Union - IUCN Red List
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