| Reticulated Flatwoods Salamander | |
|---|---|
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Division: | Chordata |
| Class: | Lissamphibia |
| Order: | Caudata |
| Family: | Ambystomatidae |
| Genus: | Ambystoma |
| Species: | A. bishopi |
| Binomial name | |
| Ambystoma bishopi (Pauly, 2007) |
|
The Reticulated Flatwoods Salamander (Ambystoma bishopi) is a species of mole salamander that is native to a small portion of the southeastern coastal plain in the western panhandle of Florida and extreme southwestern Georgia. The species once occurred in portions of southern Alabama but is now considered extirpated there. Its ecology and life history are nearly identical to its sister species, the Frosted Flatwoods Salamander (A. cingulatum). It inhabits seasonally wet pine flatwoods and pine savannas west of the Apalachicola River-Flint River system.[1] The fire ecology of longleaf pine savannas is well-known, but there is less information on natural fire frequencies of wetland habitats in this region.[2] Like the Frosted Flatwoods Salamander, this salamander breeds in ephemeral wetlands with extensive emergent vegetation, probably maintained by summer fires.[3]Wetlands overgrown with woody shrubs are less likely to support breeding populations.[4]
The species was described in 2007 and received endangered status by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in 2008.[5]