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Pseudotriton montanus

Baird, 1849

Mud Salamander

G5Secure Found in 1 roadless area NatureServe Explorer →
G5SecureGlobal Rank
Least concernIUCN
LowThreat Impact
Identity
Unique IDELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.106320
Element CodeAAAAD13010
Record TypeSPECIES
ClassificationSpecies
Classification StatusStandard
Name CategoryVertebrate Animal
IUCNLeast concern
Endemicendemic to a single nation
KingdomAnimalia
PhylumCraniata
ClassAmphibia
OrderCaudata
FamilyPlethodontidae
GenusPseudotriton
Other Common Names
mud salamander (EN)
Concept Reference
Frost, D. R. 1985. Amphibian species of the world. A taxonomic and geographical reference. Allen Press, Inc., and The Association of Systematics Collections, Lawrence, Kansas. v + 732 pp.
Taxonomic Comments
Fouquette and Dubois (2014) transferred this species to the genus Gyrinophilus, citing the cladogram published by Bonett et al. (2013 [2014]). Those authors, however, refrained from recommending this treatment on the basis of their phylogeny and relationships among forms of Pseudotriton (Crother 2017). P. m. diastictus was elevated to a full species by Collins (1991) and followed by Dubois and Raffaëlli (2012) and Raffaëlli (2022). It is retained by Crother (2017) and Nicholson (2025) as a subspecies pending additional data and analyses.
Conservation Status
Review Date2008-05-28
Change Date2001-11-13
Edition Date2011-01-06
Edition AuthorsHammerson, G.
Threat ImpactLow
Range Extent200,000-2,500,000 square km (about 80,000-1,000,000 square miles)
Number of Occurrences> 300
Rank Reasons
Widely distributed and secure in large range in the southeastern United States.
Range Extent Comments
Range extends includes the Gulf Coastal Plain from eastern Louisiana to central Florida, and extends northward in the Coastal Plain and Piedmont of eastern Georgia, the Carolinas, and Virginia, including the Coastal Plain only of Maryland and southern New Jersey; west of the Appalachians, this species occurs in eastern Tennessee, Kentucky, western West Virginia, western Virginia, and southern Ohio (some regard these populations as a distinct species, P. diastichus); isolated populations exist in east-central Mississippi and south-central Pennsylvania (Petranka 1998).
Occurrences Comments
This species is represented by many and/or large occurrences throughout most of the range.
Threat Impact Comments
No major threats are known. Wetland loss and degradation may have negatively affected this species on the Delmarva Peninsula (Heckscher 1995). However, this species probably tolerates habitat disturbance (e.g., siltation) better than do many eastern salamanders (Petranka 1998).
Ecology & Habitat

Description

A stout, coral pink, bright red, rusty, or brownish salmon salamander; dorsum had distinct ot obscure black spots; older individuals tend to be darker than younger ones; belly is reddish or yellowish; eyes are brown; 16-18 costal grooves; adult total length usually is 7-17 cm, maximum about 21 cm (12 cm in northern Florida and southern Georgia) (Smith 1978, Pfingsten and Downs 1989, Conant and Collins 1991).

Habitat

Muddy springs, slow floodplain streams, and swamps along slow streams; backwater ponds and marshes created by beaver activity. Nonlarval forms usually occur beneath logs and rocks, in decaying vegetation, and in muddy stream-bank burrows. Occasionally disperses from wet muddy areas. Secretive, sometimes difficult to detect.

Eggs are attached separately to objects in water (e.g., undersides of leaves in quiet pool, Green and Pauley 1987).

Reproduction

Lays clutch of 65-200 eggs in late fall to early winter, apparently every other year. Aquatic larvae hatch in late winter, metamorphose in 14-32 months in western South Carolina. Sexually mature in 2.5 (males) or 4-5 (females) years.
Palustrine Habitats
HERBACEOUS WETLANDSCRUB-SHRUB WETLANDFORESTED WETLANDRiparian
Other Nations (1)
United StatesN5
ProvinceRankNative
PennsylvaniaS1Yes
MississippiS2Yes
DelawareS1Yes
VirginiaS5Yes
North CarolinaS5Yes
TennesseeS5Yes
New JerseyS2Yes
LouisianaSNRYes
West VirginiaSNRYes
GeorgiaS4Yes
OhioSNRYes
MarylandS2Yes
South CarolinaS5Yes
FloridaS3Yes
AlabamaS4Yes
District of ColumbiaS3Yes
KentuckySNRYes
Threat Assessments
ThreatScopeSeverityTiming
1 - Residential & commercial development——High (continuing)
1.1 - Housing & urban areas——High (continuing)
1.2 - Commercial & industrial areas——High (continuing)
1.3 - Tourism & recreation areas——High (continuing)
4 - Transportation & service corridors——High (continuing)
4.1 - Roads & railroads——High (continuing)
5 - Biological resource use——High (continuing)
5.3 - Logging & wood harvesting——High (continuing)

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Roadless Areas (1)
North Carolina (1)
AreaForestAcres
Mackey MountainPisgah National Forest5,934
References (33)
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  2. Barbour, R. W. 1971. Amphibians and reptiles of Kentucky. Univ. Press of Kentucky, Lexington. x + 334 pp.
  3. Behler, J. L., and F. W. King. 1979. The Audubon Society field guide to North American reptiles and amphibians. Alfred A. Knopf, New York. 719 pp.
  4. Blackburn, L., P. Nanjappa, and M. J. Lannoo. 2001. An Atlas of the Distribution of U.S. Amphibians. Copyright, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, USA.
  5. Bonett, R. M., M. A. Steffen, S. M. Lambert, J. J. Wiens, and P. T. Chippindale. 2014. Evolution of paedomorphosis in plethodontid salamanders: ecological correlated and re-evolution of metamorphosis. Evolution 68: 466-482.
  6. Bruce, R. C. 1969. Fecundity in primitive plethodontid salamanders. Evolution 23:50-54.
  7. Bruce, R. C. 1974. Larval development of the salamander PSEUDOTRITON MONTANUS DIASTICTUS and P. RUBER. Am. Midl. Nat. 92:173-190.
  8. Bruce, R. C. 1975. Reproductive biology of the mud salamander, PSEUDOTRITON MONTANUS, in western North Carolina. Copeia 1975:129-137.
  9. Collins, J. T. 1991. Viewpoint: a new taxonomic arrangement for some North American amphibians and reptiles. SSAR Herpetol. Review 22:42-43.
  10. Conant, R. and J. T. Collins. 1991. A field guide to reptiles and amphibians: eastern and central North America. Third edition. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, Massachusetts. 450 pp.
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  12. Crother, B. I. (editor). 2017. Scientific and standard English names of amphibians and reptiles of North America north of Mexico, with comments regarding confidence in our understanding. 8th edition. SSAR Herpetological Circular 43:1-104. [Updates in SSAR North American Species Names Database at: https://ssarherps.org/cndb]
  13. Dodd, C. K., Jr. 2004. The amphibians of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville. xvii + 283 pp.
  14. DuBois, A., and J. Raffaëlli. 2012. A new ergotaxonomy of the order Urodela Duméril, 1805 (Amphibia, Batrachia). Alytes. Paris 28:77–161.
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  18. Frost, D. R. 2007. Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference. Version 5.1 (10 October, 2007). Electronic Database accessible at http://research.amnh.org/herpetology/amphibia/index.php. American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA.
  19. Green, N. B., and T. K. Pauley. 1987. Amphibians and reptiles in West Virginia. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. xi + 241 pp.
  20. Heckscher, C. M. 1995. Distribution and habitat associations of the eastern mud salamander, <i>Pseudotriton montanus montanus</i>, on the Delmarva Peninsula. Maryland Naturalist 39:11-14.
  21. Huheey, J. E., and A. Stupka. 1967. Amphibians and reptiles of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Univ. Tennessee Press, Knoxville. ix + 98 pp.
  22. Hunsinger, T. W. 2005. <i>Pseudotriton montanus</i> Baird, 1849. Mud salamander. Pages 858-860 in M. Lannoo, editor. Amphibian declines: the conservation status of United States species. University of California Press, Berkeley.
  23. Kozak, K. H., R. W. Mendyk, and J. J. Wiens. 2009. Can parallel diversification occur in sympatry? Repeated patterns of body-size evolution in coexisting clades of North American salamanders. Evolution 63:1769-1784.
  24. Martof, B.S. 1975. Pseudotriton montanus. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles. 166:1-2.
  25. Martof, B. S., W. M. Palmer, J. R. Bailey, and J. R. Harrison, III. 1980. Amphibians and reptiles of the Carolinas and Virginia. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. 264 pp.
  26. Minton, S. A., Jr. 2001. Amphibians & reptiles of Indiana. Revised second edition. Indiana Academy of Science, Indianapolis. xiv + 404 pp.
  27. Mount, R. H. 1975. The reptiles and amphibians of Alabama. Auburn University Agricultural Experiment Station, Auburn, Alabama. vii + 347 pp.
  28. Nicholson, K. E. (ed.). 2025. Scientific and Standard English Names of Amphibians and Reptiles of North America North of Mexico, with Comments Regarding Confidence in Our Understanding. Ninth Edition. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles. 87 pp. Online database available at: https://cnah.org/SSARnames.aspx
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  32. Redmond, W. H., and A. F. Scott. 1996. Atlas of amphibians in Tennessee. The Center for Field Biology, Austin Peay State University, Miscellaneous Publication Number 12. v + 94 pp.
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