Description:Ambystoma bishopi is a medium-sized species with a snout to vent length of 1.6 to 2.0 inches and 14 to 16 costal grooves. The head is long with a tapered snout and there are vomerine teeth in the roof of the mouth. The forelimbs are stout and the tail is flattened towards the tip, being shorter than the head and body length combined. The skin is smooth and the dorsal surface is reticulated, with thin grey lines forming a net-like pattern on a brownish-black background. The ventral surface is dark with sparse white speckles. This salamander is similar in appearance to Ambystoma cingulatum but the latter has a more frosted dorsal pattern and larger white spots on the ventral surface.
Habitat:Ambystoma bishopi is a burrowing species of salamander and lives among the leaf litter beneath longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) and wiregrass (Aristida stricta) in the flatwoods coastal plain ecosystems.
Range: The range of this species includes a small portion of the Coastal Plain of the south-eastern United States from the Apalachicola and Flint rivers (western part of the Florida Panhandle and southwestern Georgia) westward (at least formerly) to extreme southwestern Alabama. This species historically occurred in Mobile, Baldwin, Covington, and Houston counties in Alabama; Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, Holmes, Washington, Bay, Jackson, Calhoun, and Gulf counties in Florida; and Seminole, Decatur, Early, Miller, Baker, Dougherty, and Lee counties in Georgia.
Diet: The diet of the reticulated flatwoods salamanders primarily consists of earthworms and spiders.
Reproduction: Breeding starts with the arrival of the rains in October. Eggs are laid in small depressions under herbaceous vegetation or leaf litter, at the base of stumps, in the entrances of crayfish holes, or in other hidden places near ponds. After about three weeks they are ready to hatch but do not do so until they are flooded with water. The larvae are nocturnal, hiding during the day in the leaf litter and emerging to feed in the water at night. Metamorphosis usually takes place in the spring and mature individuals move to higher areas away from water where they live until the fall, when they return to flooded areas to breed. Hatchlings need a minimum of eleven weeks but a maximum of up to eighteen weeks, depending on conditions, to fully metamorphose into terrestrial adults.
Status:A. bishopi was described in 1950 and received endangered status by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in 2008. In its Red List of Threatened Species, the IUCN lists Ambystoma bishopi as being endangered. This is because the population trend is downward, as a result of habitat destruction and an increase in undergrowth. Because of the mismanagement of the regulatory fires needed by Longleaf Pine forests, much of the habitat that this species relies on is degraded to the point of habitat destruction, which is the main threat to its populations.
Since the 1990's, the range of this species has been reduced. The last observation of this species in Alabama was in Houston County in 1981, therefore the species is considered to be possibly extinct in Alabama. In Georgia, it was last recorded at two wetlands on the Mayhaw Wildlife Management Area in Miller County. Prior to these observations, the species had not been detected in Georgia since 2001. In Florida, this species continues to be observed in Santa Rosa and Okaloosa counties. Therefore, this species is currently considered to remain extant only in Santa Rosa and Okaloosa counties in Florida and Miller County in Georgia. Its extent of occurrence (EOO) is 4,030 km2.
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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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