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Home/Species/ Southern California Slender Salamander

Batrachoseps major

Camp, 1915

Southern California Slender Salamander

G4Apparently Secure Found in 12 roadless areas NatureServe Explorer →
G4Apparently SecureGlobal Rank
Least concernIUCN
LowThreat Impact
Identity
Unique IDELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.103750
Element CodeAAAAD02040
Record TypeSPECIES
ClassificationSpecies
Classification StatusStandard
Name CategoryVertebrate Animal
IUCNLeast concern
Endemicoccurs (regularly, as a native taxon) in multiple nations
KingdomAnimalia
PhylumCraniata
ClassAmphibia
OrderCaudata
FamilyPlethodontidae
GenusBatrachoseps
Synonyms
Batrachoseps pacificus major
Other Common Names
garden slender salamander (EN)
Concept Reference
Collins, J. T. 1990. Standard common and current scientific names for North American amphibians and reptiles. 3rd ed. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles. Herpetological Circular No. 19. 41 pp.
Taxonomic Comments
This taxon was regarded as a semispecies or subspecies of B. pacificus by Yanev (1980). Wake and Jockusch (2000) recognized B. major as a distinct species with two subspecies, B. m. major and B. m. aridus. The latter formerly was regarded as a species. Fouquette and Dubois (2014) follow Hansen and Wake (2005) in treating Batrachoseps major aridus as a full species. Martínez-Solano et al. (2012) reported on genetic variation within the species including considerable discordance between mtDNA and nuDNA trees and noted two distinct genetic clusters of populations (Crother 2017, Frost 2020).
Conservation Status
Review Date2001-12-17
Change Date2001-10-05
Edition Date2001-12-17
Edition AuthorsHammerson, G.
Threat ImpactLow
Range Extent20,000-200,000 square km (about 8000-80,000 square miles)
Range Extent Comments
This species occurs in southern California, United States, from the base of the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains south to the vicinity of El Rosario in Mexico. There is an isolated population in the San Pedro Martir Mountains, Baja California, Mexico; and on Catalina, Los Coronados, and Isla Todos Santos Sur (United States) (Stebbins 1985, Jockusch et al. 2001). The San Pedro Martir population might be a distinct species. The subspecies B. m. aridus is known only from Hidden Palm Canyon, Riverside County, California. United States.
Occurrences Comments
Represented by many and/or large occurrences throughout the range.
Threat Impact Comments
The only known significant threat is intensive habitat alteration. These salamanders can co-exist with low intensity suburbanization (Petranka 1998).
Ecology & Habitat

Habitat

Habitat is primarily chaparral and coastal live-oak woodlands, in canyons, washes, bases of grass-covered hills, rural gardens, and urban areas adjacent to natural areas. Salamanders retreat to burrows or underground crevices in sandy or gravelly soil during cold or dry weather. They can be found under rocks and litter in the wet season. This species is a terrestrial breeder and does not have an aquatic larval stage.

Reproduction

Breeds December-January. Female lays a string of 10-20 eggs. Terrestrial breeder, there is no aquatic larval stage (Behler and King 1979).
Terrestrial Habitats
Forest - HardwoodWoodland - HardwoodShrubland/chaparral
Palustrine Habitats
Riparian
Other Nations (1)
United StatesN4
ProvinceRankNative
CaliforniaSNRYes
Threat Assessments
ThreatScopeSeverityTiming
1 - Residential & commercial development——High (continuing)
1.1 - Housing & urban areas——High (continuing)
5 - Biological resource use——High (continuing)
5.3 - Logging & wood harvesting——High (continuing)

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Roadless Areas (12)
California (12)
AreaForestAcres
City CreekSan Bernardino National Forest9,997
Crystal CreekSan Bernardino National Forest6,783
Cucamonga AAngeles National Forest1,249
Cucamonga CSan Bernardino National Forest4,106
Eagle PeakCleveland National Forest6,481
LaddCleveland National Forest5,300
Magic MountainAngeles National Forest15,542
Mill PeakSan Bernardino National Forest7,884
No NameCleveland National Forest4,897
Pine CreekCleveland National Forest503
TrabucoCleveland National Forest23,341
WildhorseCleveland National Forest1,483
References (14)
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Bruce, R. C., R. G. Jaeger, and L. D. Houck, editors. 2000. The biology of plethodontid salamanders. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers. New York.
  4. Collins, J. T. 1990. Standard common and current scientific names for North American amphibians and reptiles. 3rd ed. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles. Herpetological Circular No. 19. 41 pp.
  5. 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]
  6. Fouquette Jr., M.J., and A. DuBois. 2014. A Checklist of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. Seventh Edition. Volume 1—Amphibians. Xlibris LLC, Bloomington, Indiana. 586 pp.
  7. Frost, D.R. 2020. Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference. Version 6.0. American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA. Online: http://research.amnh.org/herpetology/amphibia/index.html
  8. Hansen, R. W., and D. B. Wake. 2005. <i>Batrachoseps major</i>. In M. Lannoo, editor. Amphibian declines: the conservation status of United States species. University of California Press, Berkeley.
  9. Martínez-Solano, Í., R. W. Hansen, A. Peralta-García, E. L. Jockusch, D. B. Wake, E. Vázquez-Domínguez, and G. Parra-Olea. 2012. Molecular systematics of <i>Batrachoseps </i>(Caudata, Plethodontidae) in southern California and Baja California: mitochondrial-nuclear DNA discordance and the evolutionary history of <i>B. major</i>. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 63:131-149.
  10. Petranka, J. W. 1998. Salamanders of the United States and Canada. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.
  11. Stebbins, R. C. 1972. California Amphibians and Reptiles. University of California Press, Berkeley, California.
  12. Stebbins, R. C. 1985a. A field guide to western reptiles and amphibians. Second edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, Massachusetts. xiv + 336 pp.
  13. Wake, D. B., and E. L. Jockusch. 2000. Detecting species borders using diverse data sets: examples from plethodontid salamanders in California. Pages 95-119 in Bruce, R. C., R. G. Jaeger, and L. D. Houck, editors. The biology of plethodontid salamanders. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York.
  14. Yanev, K. P. 1980. Biogeography and distribution of three parapatric salamander species in coastal and borderland California. Pages 531-550 in D. M. Power, editor. The California islands: proceedings of a multidisciplinary symposium. Santa Barbara Mus. Nat. Hist. 787 pp.