Physical Description
The Four-toed Salamander can be recognized by its white underbelly sprinkled with black dots. Its back varies from orange-brownish to red-brownish; its flanks are grayish. The body and the limbs are elongated. The snout is short, and the eyes are prominent. The tail color is usually brighter than the back, and you can observe a constriction at the body/tail junction. The posterior limbs have four toes (hence its name), a good identification criterion but hard to use in the field. This species rarely exceeds 10 cm in length. The sexes are alike except for the shape of the head. Males have elongated and almost square snouts, whereas the females' snouts are short and round. The juveniles show a tail shorter than the body.
The Four-toed salamander can be easily mistaken for the Redback Salamander (Plethodon cinereus) in the wild. The redback’s underbelly is more of a "salt & pepper" color. There is no constriction at the tail and posterior limbs show five digits.
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