Amphibians
Slimy Salamander
Plethodon glutinosus · also called northern slimy salamander, viscid salamander
The slimy salamander is a black, star-flecked salamander of eastern woodlands with an unusual security system. It carries no venom and moves too slowly to flee, so instead it turns itself into flypaper: grab one, and you — or a hungry shrew — will be picking off the glue for days.
Overview
Plethodon glutinosus lives across the eastern United States, in moist hardwood forest, ravines, and shaded slopes. It is 12–20 cm long, slim and black, dusted with silvery-white or brassy flecks. Genetic studies have shown the “slimy salamander” is really a dozen or more near-identical species.
The glue
Under attack, the salamander lashes its tail, discharging a clear, intensely sticky secretion from glands along its back and tail. The glue sets like rubber cement, fouling a predator’s mouth and eyes and sometimes holding its jaws shut. It can take several days to wear off.
Life without lungs
It has no lungs, breathing entirely through its moist skin and mouth lining — which confines it to damp cover and rainy nights. There is no tadpole stage: eggs are laid in a hidden cavity, the female guards them, and they hatch as miniature salamanders.
Status
The slimy salamander is Least Concern and stable, abundant in moist forest, though a few of the range-restricted species in the complex warrant more attention.
Slimy Salamander: common questions
Why is it called the slimy salamander?
Not because it is generally slimy to the touch, though like all amphibians its skin is moist. The name comes from what happens when you pick one up. Under stress it discharges a secretion from glands concentrated on its tail and back that is extraordinarily sticky, more like contact adhesive than mucus. It bonds instantly to skin, cannot easily be wiped or washed off, and after a few minutes dries to a tough film that has to be peeled or worn away over one to several days. Anyone who has handled one ends up with black-flecked glue on their fingers that resists soap.
How does the glue protect the salamander?
A slimy salamander is slow, soft, and has no venom, so its main defence is to make itself an unpleasant mouthful. When a snake, shrew, or bird seizes it, the salamander lashes its glue-loaded tail against the attacker's face. The secretion gums up the predator's jaws, tongue, and eyes, and setting hard it can hold a small predator's mouth partly shut. The attacker usually drops the salamander to deal with the mess, and the salamander walks away, often having also shed a wriggling piece of tail as a further distraction.
How does an animal with no lungs breathe?
Through its skin. The slimy salamander belongs to the lungless salamander family, the Plethodontidae, the largest salamander family, which lost lungs early in its history. Oxygen passes directly across the thin, wet, well-supplied skin and the moist lining of the mouth and throat, and carbon dioxide leaves the same way. This works only while the skin stays damp, which is why lungless salamanders are restricted to humid forests, seeps, streamsides, and the cool spaces under cover, and why they are active mainly on rainy or dewy nights.
Are slimy salamanders dangerous or poisonous to people?
No. The glue is harmless to human skin, just annoying and persistent, and the salamander has no toxin that matters to a person and cannot bite through skin. The usual advice not to handle amphibians still applies, more for the animal's protection than yours; salt, oils, lotions, and insect repellent on human hands can harm the salamander's sensitive skin, and a stressed animal wastes its glue and its energy. If you find one under a log, the best thing is to look and then replace the log exactly as it was.