Eastern Long-Tailed Salamander (E. longicauda longicauda)
Description: Long-tailed salamanders are typically yellow, but body color may range from yellow to red. Adults are between 100 and 200 mm long, with the tail making up about 60% of total body length. Long-tailed salamanders have large eyes and a slender body with stout limbs. A key characteristic of E. longicauda is a row of irregularly shaped, dark stripes found on the long, slender tail. Adult bodies have dark dashes or dots and may contain a broad dorsal band. The belly is colored light yellow to cream.
Long-tailed salamander larvae are aquatic and have features missing in terrestrial adults, including branching gills, slim bodies, and a tail fin that does not extend to the body. Larvae also differ from adults in that they have a cream colored dorsal pattern.
Habitat: Long-tailed salamanders typically inhabit streams, limestone seeps, springs, caves, abandoned mines, wet shale banks, and ponds. Because of their bi-phasic lifecycle, both aquatic and terrestrial habitats are needed. Larvae grow in aquatic environments, such as streams, ponds, or cave pools, while adults are typically terrestrial, found underneath rocks, crevices, and stone fragments near the margins of streams.
Range: mainly distributed throughout the Ozark Highlands, Appalachian Highlands, and the Ohio River Valley. Long-tailed salamanders range from southeastern Missouri through extreme southern Illinois, throughout most of Kentucky, central and western Tennessee, extreme northeastern Mississippi, northern Alabama, northern Georgia, extreme southwestern and northwestern North Carolina, western Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, southern New York, and in the north from extreme eastern Illinois, west through southern Indiana and into southern and eastern Ohio.
Diet: Long-tailed salamanders typically eat adult and immature arthropods, worms, and other terrestrial invertebrates. Although all adults are invertebrate generalists, the types of invertebrates preyed on depends on the environment. For example, in New Jersey, spiders, homopterans, beetles, and moths and butterflies are the main diet. However, in one Indiana population, more than 20 types of invertebrates are eaten.
Reproduction: The mating system of E. longicauda has not been studied extensively and remains largely unknown. The only known courtship behavior is head-rubbing. Main breeding activity occurs during late fall to early spring. Females lay 60 to 110 eggs in water, attached to the underside of rocks. Time to hatching ranges from 4 to 12 weeks. Long-tailed salamanders are sexually mature at an average age of 2 years old.
Status: Listed as Least Concern in view of its wide distribution and presumed large population.
Disclaimer: ITIS taxonomy is based on the latest scientific consensus available, and is provided as a general reference source for interested parties. However, it is not a legal authority for statutory or regulatory purposes. While every effort has been made to provide the most reliable and up-to-date information available, ultimate legal requirements with respect to species are contained in provisions of treaties to which the United States is a party, wildlife statutes, regulations, and any applicable notices that have been published in the Federal Register. For further information on U.S. legal requirements with respect to protected taxa, please contact the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
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