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What Is Your Favorite Genus of North American Plethodontids?

grius

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Maybe a stupid question. But Is there any bolder species among all those listed in the thread? One that don't run and hide as fast one stands beside the cage or when feeding?

It's hard to find this type of information when searching the forum threads, and I'm also new to Plethodontids.

Regards.
 
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Maybe a stupid question. But Is there any bolder species among all those listed in the thread? One that don't run and hide as fast one stands beside the cage or when feeding?

It's hard to find this type of information when searching the forum threads, and I'm also new to Plethodontids.

Regards.

Eurycea lucifuga and Eurycea guttolineata are quite bold. When kept in an aquatic setup, Pseudotriton ruber also become bold, but I prefer to keep mine in a terrestrial setup. My Ensatina eschscholtzii oregonensis aren't shy necessarily. They prefer to stay hidden, but will not run away when discovered.
 

grius

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Eurycea lucifuga and Eurycea guttolineata are quite bold. When kept in an aquatic setup, Pseudotriton ruber also become bold, but I prefer to keep mine in a terrestrial setup. My Ensatina eschscholtzii oregonensis aren't shy necessarily. They prefer to stay hidden, but will not run away when discovered.

Thank you for that information. Now I can do some more reading.

Regards.
 

Jari B

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I love Plethodontids, because of their slender looking. I have Eurycea bislineata and they are so quick and agile hunters, no cricket is safe for them :cool:

Eurycea is really my favorite :)
 

bewilderbeast

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I'm a big fan of Aneides myself, and they are the only plethodontid genus I keep....

But my Favorite genus has got to be Batrachoseps.

Mostly because they are so under-appreciated. They are diminutive and rather common backyard salamanders for the most part and people don't really notice them or get too worked up about them. But I like em!

They are almost exclusively a California genus.... which I like.
There are most certainly undescribed species still out there.... 3 were just given full species status bringing the number of species to around 25, i believe.

I recently discovered an unknown population in a region of California thought to be devoid of terrestrial salamanders. After DNA analysis, they turned out to be Hell Hollow slender salamanders and not a new species.... but it was a huge westerly range extension into habitat that was not at all typical of these animals. on top of this, I found multiple individuals under the same cover. On a good day in typical habitat you would be lucky to find even one.


Now I am hooked on discovering unknown populations of Batrachoseps.
 

bewilderbeast

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OH YEAH! I almost forgot about HYDROMANTES..... they are awesome! California has all the best caudates.



even if its second best to appalachia so far as number of species.
 

Lugubris

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I would say Aneides for sure, I love their personality. Discovering a few A. lugubris recently rekindled my passion for salamanders, especially Plethodontids.

I used to find Batrachoseps attenuatus and Coast Range newts in my hometown all the time when I was a kid, and I even found a few Dicamptodon tenebrosus once while on vacation. Unfortunately, about ten years ago I noticed a sharp decline in the number of amphibians in my hometown and had a hard time finding them, which I am sure had something to do with pollution (there's an oil refinery, and a junkyard that has old cars leaking oil and probably PCB's into a creek, not to mention all the littering).

Because of that, I almost forgot about fieldherping; until a walk through the woods in my new hometown the other day yielded a nice surprise. The A. lugubris that I found were the first salamanders I had seen since the D. tenebrosus I saw over 5 years ago.
 

Jefferson

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Honesty, it depends on what region you are in. I don't keep many sallies, but I field herp all the time. If I had to pick two genuses of salamanders, they would be Plethedon and Desmognathus, my first sallies were in GSMNP, and of these genuses. Nothing should excite the salamander enthusiast more than a Plethedon on an eastern mountaintop with mist rolling around the spruce-fir forest in the early morning sun. Sorry, I tend to go on tangents about GSMNP from time to time, mostly because I haven't been there in two years. As for the rest of the nation, it's Pseudotriton and Ambystoma all the way.
 

Neotenic_Jaymes

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Aneides is my favorite genus of plethodontid. Prehensile tail, arboreal habits, TEETH and sticky finger tips. Species in this genus have great features.

Ensatina is a honorable mention.
 
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