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Longtail Salamander. (Eurycea Longicauda). Detailed Description:.
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Longtail Salamander (Eurycea Longicauda)
Detailed Description: • Adult Longtail Salamanders vary from 3.5 to 6 inches in length. The back and head are brownish yellow to bright yellow. Black spots occur on the animal's back and may be scattered in pattern or arranged in a double row. Frequently, the dark spots merge on the sides of the body to form a dark lateral stripe. The underside is dull white.
Map of Species Locations: • In Kansas, the Longtail Salamander is known only from the Ozark Plateau region of southeast Cherokee County.
Populations of Species in KS: • No known data.
Habitat: • Long-tailed salamanders frequently are associated with caves, mines, and shale and limestone creek beds. Long-tailed salamanders inhabit clean , limestone spring-fed seepages, spring kettle holes , swampy floodplains, artesian wells, and ponds associated with springs. They may also reside in abandoned mines or caves that are permeated by limestone ground water. • Aquatic habitats occupied by long-tailed salamanders often occur within upland deciduous forests that may also contain calcareous fens, limestone outcrops, or caves. Forest types typically include mature, closed canopy maple/mixed deciduous, mixed hardwood, or hemlock/mixed deciduous woodlands.
Status on the food web: • Longtail salamanders are slow-moving amphibians that typically hunt equally slow-moving prey, including slugs, small snails, beetles and earthworms. Adult longtail salamanders prey on a variety of insects, as well as worms and other soft-bodied creatures, such as slugs. • All sorts of birds, fish, raccoons, frogs, and snakes
When put on the Threatened species list: • 1997, May 1st
Why it was put on the Threatened species list: • Predation due to its orange color • The present or threatened destruction, modification or curtailment of its habitat or range. • The presence of other natural or man-made factors affecting its continued existence within this state. • Disturbance, or pollution of their small aquatic habitats.
Life cycle: • Breeding presumably occurs in late autumn and early winter. Eggs are laid in the winter, but are rarely found, probably because they are attached to rocks in dark, subsurface streams or seepages. The aquatic larvae hatch in 4-12 weeks and probably complete metamorphosis in the same year, although some may remain as larvae until the following spring or summer.
Species Recovery Plan • D. Long-tailed Salamander • 1. Taxonomy and Description • Original Description: Eurycea longicauda (Green) S(alamandra) longicauda • Green, 1818:351. Type-locality, New jersey," restricted to the "vicinity of Princeton" • by Schmidt (1953:33). • No type known to exist. Eurycea longicauda Stejneger and Barbour, 1917:19. New • combination.
6 • The form found in Kansas, E. l. melanopleura, is limited in distribution to those • portions of Kansas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri which are made up by the • Boston Mountains and the Ozark Plateau. The subspecies occurs eastward in westcentral • Illinois where its range overlaps with E. l. longicauda. Intergrades of these • forms occur in this area and eastern Missouri. • Distributions in Kansas are limited to Cherokee County where its occurrence has been • reported in streams, under the ground, or in caves depending on temperature (Collins • 1993). Collins (1993) describes Kansas collections and reported sites are plotted • (Figure 5).
