The imitator salamander (''Desmognathus imitator'') is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae. It is endemic to the Appalachian Mountains in the Eastern United States.

Description

The imitator salamander is dark brown or blackish, sometimes with a pale intermittent stripe down its back and a pale line joining eye to jaw. It often has red or orange cheek patches and its hind legs are more stocky than its forelegs.

Distribution and habitat

The imitator salamander is found in the Appalachian Mountains in Tennessee and North Carolina at elevations more than above sea level. Its range extends from the Great Smoky Mountains in the north to the

Plott Balsams The Plott Balsams are a mountain range in western North Carolina, in the southeastern United States. They are part of the Blue Ridge Mountain Province of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. The Plott Balsams stretch from the city of Sylva in t ...

and the Great Balsam Mountains in the south. Its habitat is the banks of streams, wet rocks, and the forest floor at higher altitudes. It shares its range with the

Ocoee salamander The ocoee salamander (''Desmognathus ocoee'') is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae. This salamander has a variety of colors and patterns, and got its name from Tennessee state wildflower. Its natural habitats are temperate fore ...

(''Desmognathus ocoee''), but is usually found closer to water.

Biology

The imitator salamander is not toxic, but is thought to be a Batesian mimic of the red-cheeked salamander (''Plethodon jordani''), a noxious species. Desmognathus imitator2

Adult imitator salamanders hide during the day and emerge at night to forage for small invertebrates. They are probably preyed on by birds, mammals, snakes and the spring salamander (''Gyrinophilus porphyriticus''). The imitator salamander breeds in summer and a clutch of about 20 eggs is laid and attached to the underside of a rock in a seepage or other wet location. The female broods the eggs and when they hatch, the larvae may live among wet moss, under rocks and among leaf litter. Little is known of their development, but they are assumed to eat small invertebrates and undergo

metamorphosis Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops including birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure through cell growth and differentiation. Some inse ...

into juveniles around 10 months old.

Status

The imitator salamander is listed as "near threatened" by the

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biologi ...

, because, although the total size of the population is unknown, the number of salamanders seems to be stable. The species is offered some protection because most of its range is inside the boundaries of national parks, but a small separate population on

Waterrock Knob Waterrock Knob is a mountain peak in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the highest peak in the Plott Balsams and is the 16th-highest mountain in the Eastern United States. The mountain is a popular destination with tourists and amateur hike ...

is threatened by local extinction. The Great Smoky Mountains have a high deposition of

acid rain Acid rain is rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning that it has elevated levels of hydrogen ions (low pH). Most water, including drinking water, has a neutral pH that exists between 6.5 and 8.5, but acid ...

, but no evidence shows this is affecting the salamander population.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q928311 Desmognathus Amphibians of the United States Endemic fauna of the United States Amphibians described in 1927 Taxa named by Emmett Reid Dunn Taxonomy articles created by Polbot