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Four-toed salamander

Hemidactylium scutatum · Salamanders and newts · Amphibians

Four-toed salamander (Hemidactylium scutatum): Small: 5-10.2 cm; rusty or gray-brown with grayish sides and black and bluish speckles. Four toes on each hind foot. This profile does not establish whether taking it is legal anywhere.

Check rules for a place and date

Certified rules currently represented in Hunt: coverage in development. This is coverage, not a legal answer.

Scientific name
Hemidactylium scutatum
Family
Plethodontidae
In North America
Native
Range
Discontinuously from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, southern Quebec and southern Ontario through Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota south to southeastern Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, the Florida panhandle and Georgia; fairly continuous in the northeast, spotty in the southwest.
Biology

How to identify it

Small: 5-10.2 cm; rusty or gray-brown with grayish sides and black and bluish speckles. [1][2][3]

Four toes on each hind foot. [1][2][3]

Constricted ring at the base of the tail. [1][2][3]

13-14 costal grooves; tail about 57% of length. [1][2][3]

Females have rounded snouts, breeding males squared snouts. [1][2][3]

Compared with the southern two-lined salamander: Five toes on each hind foot and no tail constriction. [1][2][3]

Species it is confused with

Check these before deciding what you are looking at. If you are not certain what it is, do not shoot.

Field notes

  • Identification Confirm a four-toed salamander before you act. Compared with the southern two-lined salamander: Five toes on each hind foot and no tail constriction.[1][2][3]
Field knowledge

Where it lives

Swamps, boggy streams and wet wooded or open areas near quiet mossy or sedgy pools; Sphagnum moss is commonly abundant. [1][2][3]

Field knowledge

How it behaves

Relatively sedentary, moving short distances between breeding sites and nonbreeding habitat; mostly inactive in the coldest months. [1][2][3]

If disturbed curls up with head under the tail, or may detach its tail. [1][2][3]

Nests communally in moss or protected sites above or beside a pool, females guarding the eggs about 2 months. [1][2][3]

Regulatory handoff

Limited legal take

Legal take of this species exists only under narrow conditions — a quota, a draw, a permit, a small area, or animals released or held on private land — set by the authorities below. Nowhere else is a legal opportunity implied, and Hunt shows one only where a certified rule establishes it.

Where legal take is listed

Being listed is not an open season. Seasons, zones, licences, methods and limits decide whether this animal may be taken on a given day and place — check Hunt or the authority before you go. Listings read 2026-09-30.

Geospatial intelligence

Where it is found

Discontinuously from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, southern Quebec and southern Ontario through Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota south to southeastern Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, the Florida panhandle and Georgia; fairly continuous in the northeast, spotty in the southwest.

Biology

Sources

Every claim above is attributed to one of these published sources.

  1. NatureServe · reviewed 2026-09-30

    NatureServe

  2. University of Michigan Museum of Zoology · reviewed 2026-09-30

    University of Michigan Museum of Zoology

  3. Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, University of Georgia · reviewed 2026-09-30

    Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, University of Georgia