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. A bright yellow patch on the eye gives this salamander its common name. This subspecies is orange-brown to dark brown above, with orange coloring below, on the eyelids, and on the sides of the head, tail and body. Yellow to orange coloring is present on the base of the limbs. Young are dark above, with yellow or orange coloring 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: Inhabits moist shaded evergreen and deciduous forests and oak woodlands, mixed grassland, and chaparral. 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: This subspecies, Ensatina eschscholtzii xanthoptica - Yellow-eyed Ensatina, is endemic to California, ranging from from near Healdsburg in Sonoma County, south along the east side of the San Francisco Bay to Santa Cruz County. A separate population occurs in the foothills of the central Sierra Nevada mountains. Yellow-eyed Ensatina were probably distributed from the Bay Area across the central valley when the climate there was cooler and moister, but as it became drier, two separate populations were formed.

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 probably leave the nesting site with the first saturating Fall rains, or, at higher elevations, after the snow melts.

Status: Listed as Least Concern in view of the large extent of occurrence, large number of subpopulations and localities, and presumed large population size.

Taxonomy: