Four-toed Salamander

Hemidactylium scutatum

Four-toed Salamander

FTSA

Status

The Four-toed Salamander is state-listed as a species of special concern in several states within its range. Tennessee lists this species as “in need of management”.

Reasons for Current Status

The Four-toed Salamander is a northern species represented in the southeast by widely disjunct, small, relict populations.

Description

This small (5–9.5 cm), brownish-yellow salamander has three distinguishing characteristics: an enamel-white belly boldly marked by black spots; four toes on its forelimbs and hindlimbs; and a distinct constriction at the base of its tail.

Distribution

The Four-toed Salamander has a patchy distribution from Nova Scotia to Wisconsin and Florida.

Habitat

This salamander is usually associated with sphagnum bogs or slow-moving streams with abundant moss or sedges adjacent to woodland areas. Adults live under rocks, logs, leaves or moss in maple-beech and other hardwood forests. They are also occasionally found in coniferous woods such as loblolly, short-leaf pine, and Virginia pines. The larvae live in pools, bogs or slow-moving streams with moss or sedges (Neill 1963b).

Special Requirements

The Four-toed Salamander is terrestrial as an adult, requiring woodlands near sphagnum ponds, streams or bogs. The larvae, however, are aquatic and require a rather permanent water source.

Breeding Habits

Breeding occurs in late February or March. Breeding may occur in December or January in the southern portion of its range. The female deposits from 30 to 50 eggs and remains with them until they hatch in about two months. The larvae transform about two months after hatching and sexual maturity is reached approximately eighteen months later.

Food Habits

This amphibian is an opportunistic feeder with a diet consisting of small arthropods and worms.

Management Suggestions

Avoiding projects which drain or flood marshy or boggy wetlands protects the breeding habitat. Nonharvest buffer strips adjacent to intermittent and perennial streams, springs, and wetlands should be retained. Adjacent upland forests of mature growth pine and hardwood need to be allowed to develop or be retained to provide important nonbreeding habitat. Additionally retention or creation of surface debris especially logs (on a logs per acre basis) during timber harvest activities will provide microhabitat for salamanders and enhance forest floor animal diversity (Saugey and Trauth 1991).

Additional References

Bishop 1943; Breitenbach 1982; Martof and others 1980.