Amphibians
Webless Salamander
Plethodon websteri · also called Webster's salamander
The webless salamander is defined almost entirely by an absence, a complete lack of webbing between its toes that sets it apart from several close relatives relying on at least partial webbing to grip wet surfaces. Small, slender, and secretive, it spends nearly its whole life hidden in the leaf litter and rotting logs of a fairly narrow stretch of southeastern forest.
Overview
The webless salamander, Plethodon websteri, is a small, lungless amphibian found within a relatively narrow range of the southeastern United States. Breathing entirely through its skin, it hunts tiny invertebrates at night in cool, damp forest leaf litter and under logs.
Direct from egg to salamander
Eggs laid on land, often guarded by the mother, skip any aquatic larval stage entirely and hatch directly into miniature salamanders. Its unassuming size and secretive habits make it easy to overlook even where it is reasonably common.
Status
Least Concern — reasonably common within its narrow southeastern range, though locally sensitive to logging and drought that dry out its ground-level forest habitat.
Webless Salamander: common questions
Why does it matter that the webless salamander lacks webbing between its toes?
In several closely related lungless salamander species, at least partial webbing between the toes helps with gripping wet rock surfaces or moving through certain moist microhabitats, so the complete absence of this webbing in the webless salamander is a distinctive physical trait that both gives the species its common name and helps researchers and enthusiasts reliably distinguish it from similar-looking relatives found in overlapping parts of its range.
How does the webless salamander breathe without lungs?
It absorbs oxygen directly through its thin, consistently moist skin and through the lining of its mouth, a process called cutaneous respiration shared by the entire lungless salamander family, which requires the species to remain in cool, damp microhabitats such as leaf litter and rotting logs rather than drier, more exposed conditions where this breathing method would not function effectively.
Does the webless salamander have a tadpole-like stage?
No, the species undergoes direct development, in which eggs laid in a moist, hidden location on land hatch directly into fully formed miniature salamanders, completely bypassing the free-swimming, gill-breathing aquatic larval stage found in many other amphibians, freeing it from any dependence on a pond or stream to complete its life cycle.
Why is the webless salamander not very well known compared with other salamanders?
Its relatively small, slender, unassuming appearance combined with a naturally narrow range confined to a limited part of the southeastern United States and generally secretive habits, spending much of its time hidden under logs, leaf litter, and loose bark, together mean the species attracts considerably less general attention than more widespread or visually distinctive salamander relatives, despite being reasonably common within its own specific range.