Southern Redback Salamander

Description:

Redback salamanders are dark with a red stripe down their backs. They look similar to Ozark Salamanders (P. angusticlavius) but their ranges dont overlap (Ozark salamanders are in the southwestern part of MO and southern redbacks are in central and eastern MO). We had a saying for redbacks, "PLSE no more" (get it? the 1st 2 letters of the genus and species name lol) because we were toe-clipping individuals for a mark-recapture study (the Mofep Project) and these guys were ridiculously awful to toe clip (little toes, and they'd do a mini slimy death-roll to get loose and then worm their way into the leaf litter never to be found again).

Habitat:

Missouri Ozarks (lol) forest, caves, leaf-litter.