Description: The green salamander is small and notably flat. Green, lichen-like blotches against a darker dorsum make Aneides aeneus the only salamander in North America with green markings. A. aeneus possesses squared toe-tips, large, conspicuous eyes, and a light blue to yellow ventral surface. The square toe-tips, as well as a prehensile tail, are morphological adaptations that help the salamander with climbing. Adults range from 3 to 5 inches with 14 to 15 costal grooves.

Habitat: They prefer rocky habitats, including sandstone and limestone outcroppings or caves and are most often found in tree or rock crevices. When not tucked into a crevice, green salamanders can be found among other moist or damp environments, including bark, leaves and logs.

Range: Aneides aeneus is known to inhabit both the Alleghenies and Cumberland Plateau, reaching from southwestern Pennsylvania to northern Alabama and northeastern Mississippi. It is also commonly found in South-Central Ohio. Isolated populations are known at the Blue Ridge Escarpment at the junction of Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. The range of the Alleghenies and Cumberland Plateau extends southwest from Fayette County, Pennsylvania through eastern West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, the extreme western portions of Virginia, Tennessee, and Alabama. The population discovered in 1930 in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park has not been located since. There may be disjunct populations on Clinch Mountain, on Bays Mountain and the Appalachian Ridge and Valley, and in the Inner Central Basin of Tennessee.

Found in these States: AL | GA | IN | KY | MD | MS | > | OH | PA | SC | TN | VA | WV

Diet: Green salamanders feed on a wide variety of small invertebrates, including arachnids, insects, snails and slugs.

Reproduction: A. aeneus has been observed to begin its period of sex and courtship in late May to early June. For Aneides aeneus, the male will enter the breeding crevices and await the arrival of females. Once a male and female meet, the courtship begins. Like some salamanders of genus Plethodon, A. aeneus begins courtship with the female straddling the base of the male's tail. In this position, and with periodic nudging and encouragement from the male, the two will traverse a small circle within the rock crevice. After some time in this dance, the male will deposit a spermatophore upon the ground and the female, still straddling the base of the male, eventually makes her way to it and "scoops" it up by lateral undulations and slow movements of the base of the tail of the female.

Eggs are laid soon after courtship. The female A. aeneus lies on her back within the rock crevice, her ventral surface pressed against the ceiling. Egg-laying often takes a period of 20 to 30 hours, where the female will apply an adhesive substance to the surface of the rock, followed by a single egg. Clutches of eggs average 15-25 eggs. The female will stay with the eggs, usually wrapping her body around the cluster or at least pressed against it, guarding them for the entirety of development. When presented with a foreign object, be it a wire, stick, or a wandering insect, the female will attack, eating the invader if possible. Female A. aeneus are not known to feed during brooding. This guarding period usually lasts 3 months, where the eggs hatch in September.

Status: Listed as Near Threatened because this species is in significant decline (a population decline between 20 to 25% is projected), because of habitat loss, over-harvesting, and disease, with a risk that these declines could in future spread to the main range of the species, thus making the species close to qualifying for Vulnerable.

Taxonomy: Aeneus was formerly considered the only species of the Aneides genus found in the Eastern United States. However, some claimed that there could be up to four different species of Aneides between the Cumberland Plateau and Blue Ridge Escarpment populations. A 2019 study found several A. aeneus populations to represent distinct taxonomic groups, supporting the presence of a possible species complex. At least one was found to represent a distinct species in its own right, the Hickory Nut Gorge green salamander (A. caryaensis). The subgenus Castaneides was created to contain all eastern species of Aneides, with caryaensis being the most basal member of the complex. Castaneides diverged from the Aneides hardii lineage between 27.2 and 32.3 million years ago.