Eurycea bislineata
(Green, 1818)
Cumberland Co., Pennsylvania. August 23, 2003.
The evening was muggy and without a breeze. I was camped under the dark shadow of Blue Mountain, watching the smoke from my fire rise and slowly drift away. A typical August day, hot and humid; it was still eighty degrees when I finally drifted off to sleep.
Morning brought some relief, and I set out early and hiked several miles of trails without turning up more than a few Fowler’s toads. My luck would change when I worked banks of a cool, rocky stream – this little beauty was underneath the first rock I lifted up. The water’s edge is often productive when the rest of the countryside is not. In appearance this species looks much like Eurycea cirrigera, the southern two-lined salamander; they differ in the number of costal grooves, a feature not readily apparent on a small, wriggly salamander.
HerpMapper records for this species are here.
