Mount Lyell Salamander (Hydromantes platycephalus)
Description: Adults measure 1.7 to 3.5 inches long from snout to vent. A small stocky salamander with a short tail, webbed feet, and a flattened head and body and 12 costal grooves. The toes are webbed and the tail is short to aid in climbing. Nasolabial grooves are present. The dorsal surface usually gray, or brownish, the color of the granite rocks they inhabitat, marked with dark spots again to help camouflage an individual. The ventral surface is dusky with white flecks. Young are dark with a greenish tinge.
Habitat: Associated with granite talus with water seeping through it, typically downslope from snowfields that melt well into the summer. Inhabits caves, granite boulders, rock fissures. rocky stream edges, and seepages from springs and melting snow. Frequents cliff faces, vertical cavern walls, and level ground. In the Yosemite Valley, H. platycephalus is found within the spray zones of several waterfalls and under moss on wet rock faces. Most locations tend to be open, not shaded.
Range: Endemic to California, with a fairly continuous range from the Sonora Pass area south to the Franklin Pass area, Tulare County along the crest of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Low elevation records are from the Yosemite Valley, Mariposa County. Isolated populations occur: Sierra Buttes, Sierra county; Smith Lake, El Dorado County; and Blackwood Canyon, Placer County.
The Blackwood Canyon population in the Truckee River drainage of the Lake Tahoe Basin was discovered in 2006. This is the first record from Placer County, filling in a major gap in the distribution of this salamander.
Found in these States:
CA
Diet: Diet consists primarily of insects and other small invertebrates. Feeds by shooting out a very long sticky mushroom-like tongue very quickly to catch prey.
Reproduction: Little is known about the breeding behavior of this species. Reproduction is terrestrial. Females presumably lay eggs in early summer.
Young develop completely in the egg and hatch fully formed. Apparent hatchlings have been found in summer.
Status: Listed as Least Concern in view of its relatively wide distribution and presumed large population.
»» Kingdom: Animalia - Animals
»» Phylum: Chordata - Chordates
»» Subphylum: Vertebrata - Vertebrates
»» Class: Amphibia - (Amphibians)
»» Order: Caudata - Salamanders
»» Family: Plethodontidae - Lungless Salamanders
»» Genus: Hydromantes
»» Species: Hydromantes platycephalus - Mount Lyell Salamander
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Mount Lyell Salamander", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0. Content may have been omitted from the original, but no content has been changed or extended.
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