Description: An adult Ensatina 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 has a black ground color is marked with large yellow or cream-colored blotches, with yellow or orange on the base of the limbs. 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: Found in evergreen and deciduous forests, under rocks, logs, and other surface debris, especially bark that has peeled off and fallen beside decaying logs. Shaded north-facing areas seem to be favored, especially near creeks or streams. Most common where there is a lot of woody debris on the forest foor. In dry or very cold weather, stays inside moist logs, animal burrows, under roots, woodrat nests, and under rocks.

Range: Yellow-blotched Ensatina are endemic to California. They occur in the lower Kern River Canyon, the Paiute Mountains, Breckenridge Mountain, the Tehachapi mountains, on Mt. Abel, Mt. Pinos, near Fort Tejon, and near Frazier-Alamo mountain.

Found in these States: 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 to 16 being average. Females remain with the eggs to guard them until they hatch. Young develop completely in the egg and hatch fully formed. Young probably leave the nesting site with the first saturating Fall rains, or, at higher elevations, after the snow melts.

Status: Small range in moist wooded habitats in southern California; probably slowly declining as a result of habitat loss and degradation from human recreational activities, livestock grazing; logging/wood removal, and climate warming.

Taxonomy: