More Information

Additional Information

Eurycea longicaudaLong-tailed Salamander

By Jonathan Haun

Ge­o­graphic Range

Eu­rycea long­i­cauda is mainly dis­trib­uted through­out the Ozark High­lands, Ap­palachian High­lands, and the Ohio River Val­ley. Long-tailed sala­man­ders range from south­east­ern Mis­souri through ex­treme south­ern Illi­nois, through­out most of Ken­tucky, cen­tral and west­ern Ten­nessee, ex­treme north­east­ern Mis­sis­sippi, north­ern Al­abama, north­ern Geor­gia, ex­treme south­west­ern and north­west­ern North Car­olina, west­ern Vir­ginia, West Vir­ginia, Mary­land, Penn­syl­va­nia, south­ern New York, and in the north from ex­treme east­ern Illi­nois, west through south­ern In­di­ana and into south­ern and east­ern Ohio (Lan­noo 2005). Map (Lan­noo, 2005)

Habi­tat

Long-tailed sala­man­ders typ­i­cally in­habit streams, lime­stone seeps, springs, caves, aban­doned mines, wet shale banks, and ponds. Be­cause of their bi-pha­sic life­cy­cle, both aquatic and ter­res­trial habi­tats are needed. Lar­vae grow in aquatic en­vi­ron­ments, such as streams, ponds, or cave pools, while adults are typ­i­cally ter­res­trial, found un­der­neath rocks, crevices, and stone frag­ments near the mar­gins of streams. ("Eu­rycea long­i­cauda (Long­tail Sala­man­der)", 2004; "Eu­rycea long­i­cauda long­i­cauda (Green), Long-tailed sala­man­der - Bio­di­ver­sity of Great Smoky Moun­tains Na­tional Park", 2007; "LONG­TAIL SALA­MAN­DER (Eu­rycea long­i­cauda)", 2002; "Long-tailed Sala­man­der, Eu­rycea long­i­cauda long­i­cauda", 2011; Lan­noo, 2005; "Field Guide to Rep­tiles and Am­phib­ians of New Jer­sey", 2007)

  • Aquatic Biomes
  • lakes and ponds
  • rivers and streams
  • Other Habitat Features
  • caves
  • Range elevation
    0 to 700 m
    0.00 to 2296.59 ft

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Long-tailed sala­man­ders are typ­i­cally yel­low, but body color may range from yel­low to red. Adults are be­tween 100 and 200 mm long, with the tail mak­ing up about 60% of total body length. Long-tailed sala­man­ders have large eyes and a slen­der body with stout limbs. A key char­ac­ter­is­tic of E. long­i­cauda is a row of ir­reg­u­larly shaped, dark stripes found on the long, slen­der tail. Adult bod­ies have dark dashes or dots and may con­tain a broad dor­sal band. The belly is col­ored light yel­low to cream.

There are three rec­og­nized sub­species: Eu­rycea long­i­cauda long­i­cauda (long-tailed sala­man­ders), Eu­rycea gut­to­lin­eata (three-lined sala­man­ders), and Eu­rycea long­i­cauda melanopleura (dark-sided sala­man­ders). Three-lined sala­man­ders are iden­ti­fied by their col­oration, which varies be­tween yel­low and bronze, as well as the three dark lines that run along the body and tail. Dark-sided sala­man­ders are iden­ti­fied by two dark lines run­ning along the sides of the body and tail with a lighter band run­ning dor­sally.

Long-tailed sala­man­der lar­vae are aquatic and have fea­tures miss­ing in ter­res­trial adults, in­clud­ing branch­ing gills, slim bod­ies, and a tail fin that does not ex­tend to the body. Lar­vae also dif­fer from adults in that they have a cream col­ored dor­sal pat­tern. ("Eu­rycea long­i­cauda (Long­tail Sala­man­der)", 2004; "Eu­rycea long­i­cauda long­i­cauda (Green), Long-tailed sala­man­der - Bio­di­ver­sity of Great Smoky Moun­tains Na­tional Park", 2007; "LONG­TAIL SALA­MAN­DER (Eu­rycea long­i­cauda)", 2002; "Long-tailed Sala­man­der, Eu­rycea long­i­cauda long­i­cauda", 2011; Arnold, et al., 2008; Lan­noo, 2005; "Field Guide to Rep­tiles and Am­phib­ians of New Jer­sey", 2007)

  • Sexual Dimorphism
  • sexes alike
  • Range length
    100 to 200 mm
    3.94 to 7.87 in

De­vel­op­ment

The lar­val pe­riod of long-tailed sala­man­ders is typ­i­cally 6 months. How­ever, tim­ing may vary among pop­u­la­tions. In order to sur­vive, aquatic lar­vae need shel­ter and food, which they find in a va­ri­ety of aquatic in­ver­te­brates, in­clud­ing os­tra­cods, cope­pods, and snails. If there is an in­suf­fi­cient food sup­ply, meta­mor­pho­sis may be de­layed for a year and lar­vae may over­win­ter. The meta­mor­pho­sis size of long-tailed sala­man­ders is 23 to 28mm snout to vent length but, if over­win­ter­ing oc­curs, they can be greater than 50 mm in total length. ("Eu­rycea long­i­cauda long­i­cauda (Green), Long-tailed sala­man­der - Bio­di­ver­sity of Great Smoky Moun­tains Na­tional Park", 2007; Lan­noo, 2005)

Re­pro­duc­tion

The mat­ing sys­tem of E. long­i­cauda has not been stud­ied ex­ten­sively and re­mains largely un­known. The only known courtship be­hav­ior is head-rub­bing. (Lan­noo, 2005)

Main breed­ing ac­tiv­ity oc­curs dur­ing late fall to early spring. Fe­males lay 60 to 110 eggs in water, at­tached to the un­der­side of rocks. Time to hatch­ing ranges from 4 to 12 weeks. Long-tailed sala­man­ders are sex­u­ally ma­ture at an av­er­age age of 2 years old. (Lan­noo, 2005)

  • Breeding interval
    Long-tailed salamanders breed once yearly.
  • Breeding season
    Females lay their eggs between late autumn and early spring, depending on latitude and altitude.
  • Range number of offspring
    60 to 110
  • Range time to hatching
    4 to 12 weeks
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
    2 years
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
    2 years

There is lit­tle in­for­ma­tion on parental in­vest­ment in E. long­i­cauda. How­ever, like most sala­man­ders, fe­males leave aquatic habi­tats after lay­ing eggs, so there is lit­tle parental in­volve­ment after egg-lay­ing.

  • Parental Investment
  • pre-fertilization
    • provisioning
    • protecting
      • female
  • pre-hatching/birth
    • provisioning
      • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

This species is rarely bred in cap­tiv­ity and there is no in­for­ma­tion on its lifes­pan in the wild. Other pletho­d­on­tids live as much as 5 to 10 years in the wild. ("Eu­rycea long­i­cauda long­i­cauda (Green), Long-tailed sala­man­der - Bio­di­ver­sity of Great Smoky Moun­tains Na­tional Park", 2007)

  • Typical lifespan
    Status: wild
    5 to 10 years

Be­hav­ior

Adults ex­hibit sea­sonal pat­terns in habi­tat use. For ex­am­ple, dur­ing pe­ri­ods of heavy rain, adults mi­grate up­hill. Also, adults are known to mi­grate into and out of caves and mine shafts. (Lan­noo, 2005)

Home Range

Long-tailed sala­man­ders can cover a con­sid­er­able dis­tance over a year but their home range size is un­clear. This is at­trib­uted to the fact that many ju­ve­niles and adults spend most of their time un­der­ground. (Lan­noo, 2005)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Long-tailed sala­man­ders com­mu­ni­cate in sim­i­lar ways to other pletho­d­on­tid sala­man­ders, using pheromones. These chem­i­cal sig­nals are very im­por­tant es­pe­cially in mat­ing rit­u­als. Courtship rit­u­als occur mainly aquat­i­cally, and one ac­count re­ports tac­tile in­ter­ac­tions as well. Dur­ing mat­ing, pletho­d­on­tids typ­i­cally ex­hibit head-rub­bing, which serves a com­mu­nica­tive pur­pose. Long-tailed sala­man­ders have de­vel­oped senses of smell and sight al­low­ing them the abil­ity to per­ceive its en­vi­ron­ment ei­ther vi­su­ally or chem­i­cally. (Arnold, et al., 2008; Lan­noo, 2005)

Food Habits

Long-tailed sala­man­ders typ­i­cally eat adult and im­ma­ture arthro­pods, worms, and other ter­res­trial in­ver­te­brates. Al­though all adults are in­ver­te­brate gen­er­al­ists, the types of in­ver­te­brates preyed on de­pends on the en­vi­ron­ment. For ex­am­ple, in New Jer­sey, spi­ders, ho­mopter­ans, bee­tles, and moths and but­ter­flies are the main diet. How­ever, in one In­di­ana pop­u­la­tion, more than 20 types of in­ver­te­brates are eaten. (Lan­noo, 2005)

  • Animal Foods
  • insects
  • terrestrial non-insect arthropods
  • terrestrial worms

Pre­da­tion

Anti-preda­tor mech­a­nisms have not been stud­ied ex­ten­sively in this species, but one mech­a­nism has been ob­served. When threat­ened, in­di­vid­u­als dis­play a de­fen­sive pos­ture with an el­e­vated tail, and the tail au­to­tomizes (breaks off) when the sala­man­der is han­dled. Also, long-tailed sala­man­ders are quick, able to bolt for cover when threat­ened. (Lan­noo, 2005)

  • Anti-predator Adaptations
  • cryptic

Ecosys­tem Roles

Long-tailed sala­man­ders are preda­tors on both ter­res­trial and aquatic in­ver­te­brates. They are also im­por­tant com­peti­tors in cave en­vi­ron­ments with other sala­man­ders. Long-tailed sala­man­der lar­vae ap­pear to be com­pet­i­tive equals with lar­val cave sala­man­ders (Eu­rycea lu­cifuga), but they ap­pear to be dis­placed by sev­eral other sala­man­der species. (Lan­noo, 2005)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Long-tailed sala­man­ders may help in pest con­trol be­cause they feed on var­i­ous ter­res­trial in­ver­te­brates, but their ef­fect on hu­mans is min­i­mal. (Lan­noo, 2005)

  • Positive Impacts
  • controls pest population

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

There are no known ad­verse ef­fects of E. long­i­cauda on hu­mans.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Long-tailed sala­man­ders re­main lo­cally abun­dant, but pop­u­la­tions have de­clined due to habi­tat loss from strip min­ing, acid drainage from coal min­ing, and clear cut­ting. This species has been listed as threat­ened in both Kansas and New Jer­sey and is a species of spe­cial con­cern in North Car­olina. In New Jer­sey, long-tailed sala­man­ders were listed as a threat­ened species in 1979. This was at­trib­uted to the de­cline of nat­ural habi­tats and pol­lu­tion of lar­val ponds. The New Jer­sey Fresh­wa­ter Wet­lands Pro­tec­tion Act helped pro­tect long-tailed sala­man­ders in New Jer­sey by out­law­ing the de­vel­op­ment of wet­land areas and "buffers." Buffers are pro­tected areas within 150 feet of wet­lands. In Kansas, the long-tailed sala­man­ders are pro­tected by the Kansas Nongame and En­dan­gered Species Con­ser­va­tion Act. This act re­quires pro­ject de­vel­op­ers to ob­tain a per­mit from the En­vi­ron­men­tal Ser­vices Sec­tion of the Kansas De­part­ment of Wildlife and Parks any­time a de­vel­op­ment pro­ject is pro­posed that will im­pact the nat­ural habi­tats of the species. ("Eu­rycea long­i­cauda (Long­tail Sala­man­der)", 2004; "LONG­TAIL SALA­MAN­DER (Eu­rycea long­i­cauda)", 2002; "Long-tailed Sala­man­der, Eu­rycea long­i­cauda long­i­cauda", 2011; "Field Guide to Rep­tiles and Am­phib­ians of New Jer­sey", 2007)

Con­trib­u­tors

Jonathan Haun (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor, Rachelle Ster­ling (ed­i­tor), Spe­cial Pro­jects, Phil Myers (ed­i­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor, Tanya Dewey (ed­i­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Glossary

Nearctic

living in the Nearctic biogeographic province, the northern part of the New World. This includes Greenland, the Canadian Arctic islands, and all of the North American as far south as the highlands of central Mexico.

World Map

bilateral symmetry

having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.

carnivore

an animal that mainly eats meat

chemical

uses smells or other chemicals to communicate

cryptic

having markings, coloration, shapes, or other features that cause an animal to be camouflaged in its natural environment; being difficult to see or otherwise detect.

ectothermic

animals which must use heat acquired from the environment and behavioral adaptations to regulate body temperature

external fertilization

fertilization takes place outside the female's body

fertilization

union of egg and spermatozoan

forest

forest biomes are dominated by trees, otherwise forest biomes can vary widely in amount of precipitation and seasonality.

freshwater

mainly lives in water that is not salty.

heterothermic

having a body temperature that fluctuates with that of the immediate environment; having no mechanism or a poorly developed mechanism for regulating internal body temperature.

indeterminate growth

Animals with indeterminate growth continue to grow throughout their lives.

insectivore

An animal that eats mainly insects or spiders.

iteroparous

offspring are produced in more than one group (litters, clutches, etc.) and across multiple seasons (or other periods hospitable to reproduction). Iteroparous animals must, by definition, survive over multiple seasons (or periodic condition changes).

metamorphosis

A large change in the shape or structure of an animal that happens as the animal grows. In insects, "incomplete metamorphosis" is when young animals are similar to adults and change gradually into the adult form, and "complete metamorphosis" is when there is a profound change between larval and adult forms. Butterflies have complete metamorphosis, grasshoppers have incomplete metamorphosis.

migratory

makes seasonal movements between breeding and wintering grounds

motile

having the capacity to move from one place to another.

native range

the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.

nocturnal

active during the night

oviparous

reproduction in which eggs are released by the female; development of offspring occurs outside the mother's body.

pheromones

chemicals released into air or water that are detected by and responded to by other animals of the same species

seasonal breeding

breeding is confined to a particular season

sexual

reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female

social

associates with others of its species; forms social groups.

tactile

uses touch to communicate

temperate

that region of the Earth between 23.5 degrees North and 60 degrees North (between the Tropic of Cancer and the Arctic Circle) and between 23.5 degrees South and 60 degrees South (between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle).

terrestrial

Living on the ground.

vibrations

movements of a hard surface that are produced by animals as signals to others

visual

uses sight to communicate

Ref­er­ences

State of New Jer­sey. 2007. Field Guide to Rep­tiles and Am­phib­ians of New Jer­sey. Tren­ton, NJ: De­part­ment of En­vi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion.

2004. "Eu­rycea long­i­cauda (Long­tail Sala­man­der)" (On-line). Ac­cessed March 20, 2010 at http://​www.​iucnredlist.​org/​apps/​redlist/​details/​59268/​0.

2007. "Eu­rycea long­i­cauda long­i­cauda (Green), Long-tailed sala­man­der - Bio­di­ver­sity of Great Smoky Moun­tains Na­tional Park" (On-line). Ac­cessed March 20, 2010 at http://​www.​dlia.​org/​atbi/​species/​Animalia/​Chordata/​Amphibia/​Urodela/​Plethodontidae/​Eurycea_​longicauda.​shtml.

2002. "LONG­TAIL SALA­MAN­DER (Eu­rycea long­i­cauda)" (On-line). Kansas De­part­ment of Wildlife and Parks. Ac­cessed March 20, 2010 at http://​www.​kdwp.​state.​ks.​us/​news/​Other-Services/​Threatened-and-Endangered-Species/​Threatened-and-Endangered-Species/​Species-Information/​LONGTAIL-SALAMANDER.

2011. "Long-tailed Sala­man­der, Eu­rycea long­i­cauda long­i­cauda" (On-line). Ac­cessed March 20, 2010 at http://​www.​state.​nj.​us/​dep/​fgw/​ensp/​pdf/​end-thrtened/​lngtlsalamander.​pdf.

Arnold, S., K. Kiem­nec, H. God­win. 2008. A Re­com­bi­nant Courtship Pheromone Af­fects Sex­ual Re­cep­tiv­ity in a Pletho­d­on­tid Sala­man­der. Cary, NC: Ox­ford Uni­ver­sity Press.

Lan­noo, M. 2005. Am­phib­ian De­clines: The Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus of United States Species. Berke­ley, CA: Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia Press.

Search

Navigation Links

Information
Pictures
Classification

Classification

  • Kingdom Animalia animals
  • Phylum Chordata chordates
  • Subphylum Vertebrata vertebrates
  • Class Amphibia frogs, salamanders, and caecilians
  • Family Plethodontidae Lungless Salamanders
  • Genus Eurycea
  • Species Eurycea longicauda Long-tailed Salamander