Description: Adults measures from 1.5 to 3.2 inches long from snout to vent, and 3 to 6 inches in total length. A medium-sized salamander. The legs are long, and the body is relatively short, with 12 to 13 costal grooves. Nasolabial grooves are present. The tail is rounded and constricted at the base, which will differentiate this salamander from its neighbors. This subspecies is blackish above with large orange, yellow, or pinkish blotches and coloring on the base of the limbs and a gray venter. The eyes are dark with no yellow markings. Males have longer, more slender tails than females, and a shorter snout with an enlarged upper lip, while the bodies of females are usually shorter and fatter than the bodies of males.

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.

Range: Found 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. Old sightings from the San Gabriel Mountains have not been confirmed. The subspecies intergrades with the Yellow-blotched Ensatina in the San Bernardino and San Jacinto Mountains.

A population of Large-blotched Ensatina has become established in Gila County, Arizona. anong Tonto Creek. A Herp Review note published in March, 2019, provides more details: Twenty-two of them were collected in the Palomar Mountains of California and intentionally and illegally released at the Arizona location in April 1980 where they have been observed at least since 2003.

Found in these States: AZ | CA

Diet: Ensatinas eat a wide variety of invertebrates, including worms, ants, beetles, spiders, scorpions, centipedes, millipedes, sow bugs, and snails. They expell a relatively long sticky tongue from the mouth to capture the prey and pull it back into the mouth where it is crushed and killed, then swallowed. Typically feeding is done using sit-and-wait ambush tactics, but sometimes Ensatinas will slowly stalk their prey.

Reproduction: Reproduction is terrestrial. Mating takes place in Fall and Spring, but may also occur throughout the winter. Stebbins describes an elaborate Ensatina courtship involving the male rubbing his body and head against the female eventually dropping a sperm capsule onto the ground which the female picks up with her cloaca. The female can store the sperm until she determines the time is right to fertilize her eggs. 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. Females lay 3 to 25 eggs, with 9 - 16 being average. Females remain with the eggs to guard them until they hatch. Young develop completely in the egg and probably leave the nesting site with the first saturating Fall rains, or, at higher elevations, after the snow melts.

Status: Small range. Populations may be declining. Habitat vulnerable to fire; fires regionally increasing in frequency and intensity with climate change (evidenced by increased droughts, warming, and more extreme weather events). Additional threats from timber extraction, feral pigs, and vehicle strikes, and potentially chytrid fungal disease.

Taxonomy: