Range in California: Dark Blue
Click the map for a key to
the other Ensatina subspecies
Dot-locality Range Map
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Adult, Mt. Palomar, San Diego County |
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Underside of Adult, San Diego County |
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Adult, Mt. Palomar, San Diego County
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Pale-blotched Adult, (Possibly an intergrade with the Yellow-blotched
Ensatina) 5,500 ft., Mt. San Jacinto, Riverside County |
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Habitat |
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Habitat, San Diego County
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Habitat, 5,000 ft. San Diego County |
Habitat, 5,000 ft. San Diego County |
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Habitat, 4,700 ft, San Diego County |
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Description |
| Size |
| Adult Ensatina measure from 1 1/2 - 3 1/5 inches long ( 3.8 - 8.1 cm) from snout to vent, and 3 - 6 inches (7.5 - 15.5 cm) in total length. |
| Appearance |
A medium-sized plethodontid salamander which breathes through its smooth moist thin skin. The legs are long, and the body is relatively short, with 12 - 13 costal grooves. Nasolabial grooves are present. The tail is rounded and constricted at the base, which will differentiate this salamander from its neighbors. Males have longer, more slender tails than females, and a shorter snout with an enlarged upper lip.
This subspecies is blackish above with large orange or pinkish blotches and coloring on the base of the limbs and a gray venter. The eyes are dark with no yellow markings. |
| Behavior and Natural History |
Ensatina live in relatively cool moist places on land, and stay underground during hot and dry periods where they are able to tolerate considerable dehydration. They are most active on rainy or wet nights when temperatures are moderate. High-altitude populations are also inactive during severe winter cold.
Adults have been observed marking and defending territories outside of the breeding season.
Typically feeding is done using sit-and-wait ambush tactics, catching the prey with a sticky tongue, but sometimes Ensatina will slowly stalk their prey.
Longevity has been estimated at up to 15 years.
When disturbed, Ensatina will stand tall in a stiff-legged defensive posture with its back swayed and the tail raised up. Often they secrete a milky white substance from the top of the tail. This noxious substance repels potential predators and sticks to the mouth of a predator that is trying to swallow them. When severely threatened, an Ensatina may drop its tail to distract a predator. The tail can be re-grown.
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| Sound |
| Rarely, Ensatina make a hissing sound, similar to the hissing of a snake, when threatened. (Stebbins 1951; Brodie, 1978.) |
| Diet |
| Eats a wide variety of invertebrates, including spiders, beetles, crickets, sowbugs, centipedes, millipedes, worms, snails, and termites. |
| Reproduction and Young |
Reproduction is terrestrial. Breeding takes place in Fall and Spring, but may also occur throughout the winter. At the end of the rainy season, typically April or May, females retreat to their aestivation site under bark, in rotting logs, or in underground animal burrows, and lay their eggs, remaining with them until they hatch. Females lay from 3 - 25 eggs, with 9 - 16 being average. In labs, eggs have hatched in 113 - 177 days. Young hatch fully formed and probably emerge with the Fall rains.
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| Range |
The Large-blotched Ensatina is found in in the peninsular ranges of southern California and part of the eastern San Bernardino Mountains. Isolated populations occur in the San Pedro de Martir Mountains and the Sierra Juarez of northern Baja California. (Grismer, 2002) Old sightings from the San Gabriel Mountains have not been confirmed. It intergrades with the Yellow-blotched Ensatina in the San Bernardino and San Jacinto Mountains.
Ensatina is the most widely-distributed plethodontid salamander in the West, ranging from an isolated location in the mountains of Baja California north along the extreme northwest coast of Baja California, through most of California excluding the deserts, the central valley, and high elevations in the mountains, continuing north into Oregon and Washington west of the Cascades Mountains, and farther north into Canada along the coast of southern British Columbia. Also found on Vancouver Island. |
| Habitat |
| Inhabits moist shaded evergreen and deciduous forests and oak woodlands. Found under rocks, logs, other debris, especially bark that has peeled off and fallen beside logs and trees. Most common where there is a lot of coarse woody debris on the forest foor. In dry or very cold weather, stays inside moist logs, animal burrows, under roots, woodrat nests, under rocks. |
| Taxonomic Notes |
Coexists with E. e. eschscholtzii in the Peninsular ranges, hybridizing with it at some locations, including Mt. Palomar. Intergrades with E. e. croceater.
Ensatina eschscholtzii is typically treated as a "ring" species, consisting of 7 subspecies: E. e. croceater, E. e. eschscholtzii, E. e. klauberi, E. e. oregonensis, E. e. picta, E. e. platensis, and E. e. xanthoptica, which ring the Central Valley, but do not interbreed where the rings overlap in Southern California (and possibly in the central Sierra Nevada.)
Some researchers consider Ensatina eschscholtzii to be comprised of two or more species forming a superspecies complex, recognizing E. e. klauberi found at the southern end of the ring, as a separate species - Ensatina klauberi. |
| Conservation Issues (Conservation Status) |
| A California Species of Special Concern. |
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Taxonomy |
| Family |
Plethodontidae |
Lungless Salamanders |
| Genus |
Ensatina |
Ensatinas |
| Species |
Eschscholtzii |
Ensatina |
Subspecies
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klauberi |
Large-blotched Ensatina |
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Original Description |
Ensatina eschscholtzii - Gray, 1850 - Cat. Spec. Amph. Coll. Brit. Mus., Batr. Grad., p. 48
Ensatina eschscholtzii klauberi -Tanner, "1944" 1945 - Great Basin Nat., Vol. 5, p. 71, pl. 1, map
from Original Description Citations for the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America © Ellin Beltz
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Meaning of the Scientific Name |
Ensatina: Latin - sword shaped/similar to, possibly referring to the teeth.
eschscholtzii: honors Johann F. Eschscholtz.
klauberi: honors Laurence M. Klauber
from Scientific and Common Names of the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America - Explained © Ellin Beltz
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Alternate Names |
Ensatina klauberi - Large-blotched Ensatina (A full species)
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Related California Salamanders |
Monterey Ensatina
Oregon Ensatina
Painted Ensatina
Sierra Nevada Ensatina
Yellow-eyed Ensatina
Yellow-blotched Ensatina
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More Information and References |
Natureserve Explorer
California Dept. of Fish and Game
AmphibiaWeb
Speciation in Progress
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.
Grismer, L. Lee. Amphibians and Reptiles of Baja California, Including Its Pacific Islands and the Islands in the Sea of Cortés. The University of California Press, 2002.
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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.
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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 |
DFG:SSC |
California Species of Special Concern |
| Bureau of Land Management |
None |
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| USDA Forest Service |
USFS:S |
Sensitive |
| Natureserve Global Conservation Status Ranks |
G5 S2S3 |
Secure |
World Conservation Union - IUCN Red List
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