Frosted Flatwoods Salamander

The frosted flatwoods salamander is an endangered mole salamander native to the southeastern United States, found only east of the Apalachicola River in northern Florida, southern Georgia, and southern South Carolina. It is small, 9 to 13.5 centimeters long, with a small head, short legs, and a rounded tail, colored brownish to purplish black overlaid with gray or silvery white net like markings and bands, while its larvae instead show bold brown and yellow stripes. It breeds in shallow, ephemeral ponds ringed by pond cypress and black tupelo within seasonally wet pine flatwoods and savannas. It is listed as endangered, having been reclassified from threatened after a 2019 status review found its populations extremely small, discontinuous, and fragmented because of habitat loss to development, agriculture, and forestry.