Plethodon is a genus of salamanders in the family Plethodontidae. They are commonly known as woodland salamanders. All members of the genus are endemic to North America. They have no aquatic larval stage. In some species, such as the red-backed salamander. Young hatch in the adult form. Members of Plethodon primarily eat small invertebrates. The earliest known fossils of this genus are from the Hemphillian of Tennessee in the United States.
Wehrle's salamander is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae. It is endemic to the Eastern United States. It is named in honor of Richard White Wehrle (1852–1937), a jeweler, naturalist, and collector of the holotype.
The Ozark zigzag salamander is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae endemic to the United States. It is one of 57 species in the genus Plethodon. Its natural habitats are temperate forests, freshwater springs, rocky areas, and caves. It is threatened by habitat loss.
The Cheoah Bald salamander is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae endemic to the state of North Carolina in the United States. Its natural habitat is temperate forests and it is threatened by habitat loss. It was formerly considered a variant of the red-cheeked salamander until it was found to be a distinct species.
The white-spotted slimy salamander is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae endemic to the Eastern United States. It is one of 55 species in the genus Plethodon, and was one of the first to be described of its cogeners. The preferred habitat of this species is under logs and leaf litter in shaded hardwood forests and wooded floodplains, and often forages on the forest floor on wet nights. It was found that with increasing temperatures, the aggression in this species also increases. In the plethodon genus, species have a lungless morphology, restricting nearly all gas and water exchange transport to the body surface. This species mainly consumes insects, including ants, centipedes, springtails, crickets, millipedes, slugs, snout-beetles, and earthworms. Common predators of this species are gartersnakes, copperheads, and birds. One of their predator defense mechanisms is the release of noxious/sticky substances through the skin by the dorsal granular glands. Another predator deterrent is when touched, this species will freeze in place and become immobile. This species of Plethodon are mostly terrestrial and deposit their direct-developing eggs on land that omits the aquatic larval stage characteristic of most amphibians, therefore this species is not restricted to aquatic habitats for reproduction and dispersal. This species, along with other Plethodontid salamanders, are frequently parasitized by Trombicula mites.
The northern zigzag salamander is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae. It is endemic to the eastern United States and has been found in Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi. The northern zigzag salamander's natural habitat includes temperate forests, rocky areas, and caves. It is threatened by habitat loss.
The northern ravine salamander is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae. The species is endemic to the United States.
The Cumberland Plateau salamander is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae. It is endemic to the Cumberland Plateau, the southeastern United States. Its natural habitat is temperate forests. It is threatened by habitat loss.
The northern gray-cheeked salamander is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae and endemic to the Blue Ridge Mountains and Appalachian Mountains in the eastern United States. It is closely related to the Red-cheeked salamander and the Red-legged salamander. Its natural habitat is temperate forests. It is found under moss, rocks, logs, and bark in cool, moist forests above 2500 feet. Especially found in spruce-fir forests. The Gray-cheeked Salamander commonly eats millipedes, earthworms, crane flies, spiders, and centipedes and less commonly eats ants, mites, and springtails. They eat spiders, moths, flies, beetles, bees, and snails. The male and female perform a courtship, where the male nudges the female with his snout, does a foot dance, then circles under the female and the two then walk together. Like other salamanders, they do not migrate or aggregate during breeding season. It is threatened by habitat loss.
Plethodon punctatus, commonly known as the Cow Knob salamander or white-spotted salamander, is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae. It is endemic to high mountain forests on the border of Virginia and West Virginia in the United States. Nearly all occurrences are on Shenandoah Mountain, Nathaniel Mountain and Great North Mountain in George Washington National Forest. Cow Knob salamanders are a member of the P. wehrlei species complex, which includes many other Appalachian salamanders historically referred to Plethodon wehrlei.
The Sequoyah slimy salamander is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae.
The Big Levels salamander is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae. It is endemic to Virginia in the eastern United States. First described in 2004, it derives its specific name, sherando, from Sherando Lake in the George Washington National Forest. Its common name refers to the Big Levels area of southeastern Augusta County, Virginia, a series of flat to gently rolling mountain tops in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where it was found.
The southern Appalachian salamander is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae.
The western red-backed salamander is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae. The species is found in extreme southwestern Canada and the northwestern United States. The western red-backed salamander is found in temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest. It is considered widespread in the region and is not strictly associated with a specific habitat type.
The Savannah slimy salamander is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae. It is endemic to the state of Georgia in the United States, where it is restricted to the Atlantic coastal plain in Burke, Jefferson, and Richmond counties. This distribution reaches its eastern limit at the Savannah River. Its natural habitat is bottomland hardwood forest. Population analysis indicates a precipitous decline in the population of this species, and it is becoming extirpated in many areas due to development; for example, the habitat at the type locality of this species was partially destroyed by a housing development.
The Dixie Caverns salamander is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae. It is endemic to the state of Virginia in the United States. It is most often found in Roanoke County, but several specimens have been recorded in surrounding counties. It was commonly confused with Wehrle's salamander and was merged with that species shortly after description, but a 2019 study reaffirmed it as a distinct species.
The Blacksburg salamander is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae. It is endemic to the Southeastern United States, where it is restricted to a portion of the Appalachian Mountains in southwestern Virginia. Its common name refers the town of Blacksburg, Virginia, as many specimens were initially found in the vicinity of the town.
