Description

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Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: United States

U.S. state distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: North Carolina

View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.

Possible reasons for amphibian decline

General habitat alteration and loss

Comments
This species was featured as News of the Week on 11 January 2021:

The Eurycea bislineata complex ("Two-lined salamanders") is found in eastern North America from Quebec to the Gulf of Mexico and as far west as the Mississippi River. Prior to 2020, the complex consisted of six species, but several studies have shown the potential for more species in the complex. The most recent molecular analyses by Stuart et al. (2020) identified a seventh new species, Eurycea arenicola, split from E. cirrigera. The new salamander is found in the Sandhills of North Carolina, where it had long been considered a distinct ecomorph or candidate for full species because of its unique orange to red color with black spots and its unique habitat. In the Carolina Sandhills, it lives in slow-moving blackwater streams rather than flowing rocky streams along with other endangered species of this restricted ecosystem of Longleaf Pine and wiregrass like the Pine Barrens treefrog (Hyla andersonii). Analyses by Stuart et al. also indicate a complex gene exchange history as the most closely related species in their mtDNA analysis were more distantly related in their nuclear DNA analysis and the most geographically close population was not closely related by either analysis. The Eurycea bislineata complex still has more answers to reveal, but this study helps our understanding of a decades long question. (AChang)

Species Account Citation: AmphibiaWeb 2021 Eurycea arenicola: Carolina Sandhills Salamander <http://amphibiaweb.org/species/9303> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed Jan 20, 2021.

Citation: AmphibiaWeb. 2021. <http://amphibiaweb.org> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed 20 Jan 2021.

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