Northern Two-Lined Salamander
Eurycea bislineata

Cumberland Co., Pennsylvania.  August 23, 2003
 

The evening was muggy and without a breeze.  I was camped under the dark shadow of Blue Mountain, watching the smoke from my fire rise and slowly drift away.  It was still eighty degrees when I finally drifted off to sleep.  A typical August day, hot and humid.

Morning brought some relief, and I set out early and hiked several miles of trails without turning up more than a few Fowler's toads.  My luck would only change when I worked banks of a cool, rocky stream - this little beauty  was underneath the first rock I lifted up.  The water's edge is often productive when the rest of the countryside is not.

In appearance it differs little from cirrigera, the Southern Two-Lined; they differ in the number of costal grooves, a feature not readily apparent on a small, wriggly salamander.