Black-bellied slender salamander

Black-bellied slender salamander
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Caudata
Family: Plethodontidae
Genus: Batrachoseps
Species: B. nigriventris
Binomial name
Batrachoseps nigriventris
Cope, 1869

The black-bellied slender salamander, Batrachoseps nigriventris, is a small species of salamander that is endemic to California.

Distribution

This salamander prefers California chaparral and woodlands habitats of Coast live oak - Quercus agrifolia and California sycamore - Platanus racemosa.

Description

The black-bellied slender salamander is about 3.1 to 4.3 cm long. It has a worm-like body, a small head and small limbs, and a long cylindrical tail, often twice the length of its body.

The black-bellied slender salamander can have a black, tan, reddish, brown or beige dorsum often with a contrasting broad mid-dorsal stripe of similar colors. It has a purplish or black venter with fine light speckling over the entire surface.

This species will coil its body and tail when handled; it is fragile and easily injured. Batrachoseps nigriventis looks similar to the related species Batrachoseps pacificus and Batrachoseps gabrieli.

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, October 10, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.