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The Corsican fire salamander (''Salamandra corsica'') is a species of
salamander Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by their lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults. All ten ...
in the family Salamandridae found only on the island of
Corsica Corsica ( , Upper , Southern ; it, Corsica; ; french: Corse ; lij, Còrsega; sc, Còssiga) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of ...
as an
endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...
species. In former times, this species was known as a subspecies of the widespread but continental-distributed fire salamander, which may appear quite similar.


Description

''Salamandra corsica'' are glossy black salamanders with yellow splotches on their dorsum that have adult sizes ranging from 120 - 300 mm. Males are generally smaller than females. The head is wider than it is long, and is rounded in shape. This species possess bright yellow colored paratoid glands and two lines of poison glands that run in parallel down their ventral sides, and two irregular rows of glands down the tail. The snout and toes are blunt and round, as is the tip of the tail. Males have pronounced cloacas, whose opening is a single longitudinal fold. ''Salamandra corsica'' has clear costal grooves running down the ventral sides. These salamanders have smooth, shiny skin, and easily visible yet reduced paratoid glands compared to other species in the ''Salamandr''a genus.


Habitat

The Corsican fire salamander mainly lives in the
deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...
mountain forests of the island. On the west coast near in the
Calanques de Piana Calanques de Piana ( co, calanchi di Piana or ) are Corsican calanques located in Piana, between Ajaccio and Calvi, in the Gulf of Porto. It is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site that includes other sites in the Gulf of Porto, due to its beau ...
, salamanders have been found near sea level, but in general they appear as inhabitant of forests with deciduous oaks, such as
sessile oak ''Quercus petraea'', commonly known as the sessile oak, Cornish oak, Irish Oak or durmast oak, is a species of oak tree native to most of Europe and into Anatolia and Iran. The sessile oak is the national tree of Ireland, and an unofficial e ...
,
downy oak ''Quercus pubescens'', the downy oak or pubescent oak, is a species of white oak (genus ''Quercus'' sect. ''Quercus'') native to southern Europe and southwest Asia, from northern Spain (Pyrenees) east to the Crimea and the Caucasus. It is also fou ...
and
sweet chestnut ''Castanea sativa'', the sweet chestnut, Spanish chestnut or just chestnut, is a species of tree in the family Fagaceae, native to Southern Europe and Asia Minor, and widely cultivated throughout the temperate world. A substantial, long-live ...
gardens near the human settlements. Forests with the
maritime pine ''Pinus pinaster'', the maritime pine or cluster pine, is a pine native to the south Atlantic Europe region and parts of the western Mediterranean. It is a hard, fast growing pine bearing small seeds with large wings. Description ''Pinus pinast ...
and the Corsican black pine (''Pinus nigra'' subsp. ''salzmannii'' var. ''corsicana'') are also inhabited. Densely growing ferns ('' Pteridium aquilinum''),
tree heath ''Erica arborea'', the tree heath or tree heather, is a species of flowering plant (angiosperms) in the heather family Ericaceae, native to the Mediterranean Basin and Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania in East Africa. It is also cultivated as an ...
, and other shrubby vegetation might diminish the fire salamander population, also as
evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, which ...
sclerophyll Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaves, short internodes (the distance between leaves along the stem) and leaf orientation which is parallel or oblique to direct ...
ic woods, such as holly oak forests because of their minor
precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...
sum.
Beech Beech (''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. Recent classifications recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, ''Engleriana'' and ''Fagus''. The ''Engle ...
forests are populated in the Castagniccia and also in the south of the island where this tree assembles dense azonal forests and does not appear mainly as upper
tree line The tree line is the edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually cold temperatures, extreme snowp ...
, as in the western mountain ranges of Corsica. The midranges of the Corsican mountains seem to be preferred because of their constant humidity and moderate temperatures. Constant water in the creeks coming down from the summits supports good development of the larvae over the hot summer. They are born when the snow has melted away and the streams are safe again for the newborn larvae. Their surroundings and
stone run A stone run (called also ''stone river'', ''stone stream'' or ''stone sea''herpetologist
Robert Mertens Robert Friedrich Wilhelm Mertens (1 December 1894 – 23 August 1975) was a German herpetologist. Several taxa of reptiles are named after him.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimo ...
found a pregnant Corsican fire salamander in the Restonica Valley that gave birth to four offspring without
gill A gill () is a respiratory organ that many aquatic organisms use to extract dissolved oxygen from water and to excrete carbon dioxide. The gills of some species, such as hermit crabs, have adapted to allow respiration on land provided they ar ...
s and already with the characteristic black and yellow of the adults. At the same time, he found normally developing aquatic larvae with their three characteristic feathery external gills on each side of their heads and
camouflage Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the b ...
blending into the pond's substrate. The reproductive ability of
viviparity Among animals, viviparity is development of the embryo inside the body of the parent. This is opposed to oviparity which is a reproductive mode in which females lay developing eggs that complete their development and hatch externally from the m ...
is well known from the fire salamander's northwest Spanish
subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...
, ''S. s. bernardezi'' ( Asturian fire salamander) and the
alpine salamander The alpine salamander (''Salamandra atra'') is a black salamander that can be found in the French Alps, and through the mountainous range in Europe. It is a member of the genus '' salamandra''. Their species name, ''atra'', may be derived from th ...
(''S. atra'') from the central and east
Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Swi ...
. This can be interpreted as a local adaptation to xerothermic
climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologi ...
conditions and lack of ponds and brooks.


Threats

The Corsican fire salamander is threatened by
habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...
, forest works, road construction, and traffic. The species may also be threatened by water pollution,
wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically ident ...
s, and wood pasture. Introducing invasive fish species, such as
rainbow trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead (sometimes called "steelhead trout") is an anadromous (sea-run) form of the coasta ...
in the larval habitats diminishes the reproduction of the island's fire salamanders significantly. Indigenous
anadromous Fish migration is mass relocation by fish from one area or body of water to another. Many types of fish migrate on a regular basis, on time scales ranging from daily to annually or longer, and over distances ranging from a few metres to thousa ...
fish, such as the Mediterranean trout ''Salmo cettii'', which is also highly endangered, seems not to have a significant influence on the amphibians.


References

* *Robert Mertens: ''Die Amphibien und Reptilien Korsikas'' – Senckenberg. Biol. 38 (1957, Heft 3/4): 175–192, location=Frankfurt/M. *Thomas Mutz: ''Salamandra corsica (Savi, 1838) – Korsischer Feuersalamander.'' – In: Burkhard Thiesmeier & Kurt Grossenbacher (Eds.): ''Handbuch der Reptilien und Amphibien Europas, Schwanzlurche IIB.'' Aula Verlag Wiebelsheim (Germany), 2004, p. 1029–1046. *


External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q665014 Amphibians described in 1838 Amphibians of Europe Salamandra Endemic fauna of Corsica Taxa named by Paolo Savi Taxonomy articles created by Polbot