THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Amphibia    Caudata    Plethodontidae  

Three-lined Salamander
Eurycea guttolineata (Holbrook, 1838)
yoor-EE-see-uh — goo-toh-lin-ee-AY-tuh

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 There are no current SSAR comments for this taxon.

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Occurrences:; 5,162 Total; 3,165 Museum; 1,997 Other
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Province/State Distribution:
United States: Alabama Florida Georgia Kentucky Louisiana Mississippi North Carolina South Carolina Tennessee Virginia

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named for its striped appearance.
Eurycea — Rafinesque (1822) intentionally used a mythological-sounding name, but its specific Greek meaning or derivation was not disclosed. So, while modern etymologists may connect Eurycea to Eurydice or Greek roots (eurys “broad”), Rafinesque himself treated it as a classical name without a defined origin.
guttolineata — Latin gutta = “drop” or “spot” + lineatus = “lined”; “Spotted-lined” or “streaked,” referring to the distinctive black stripes along the back and sides.

First instance(s) of published English names:
Holbrook's Triton (Spelerpes guttolineatus: Yarrow, Henry C. 1882. Check list of North American Reptilia and Batrachia with catalogue of specimens in U. S. National Museum. Bulletin of the United States National Museum (24):1-249); Holbrook's Salamander (Spelerpes guttolineatus: Hurter, Julius. 1911. Herpetology of Missouri. Transactions of the Academy of Science of St. Louis 20(5):59-274); Holbrook's Triton (Spelerpes guttolineatus: Brimley, Clement S. 1915. List of reptiles and amphibians of North Carolina. Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 30(4):195-206); Three-lined Salamander (Eurycea longicauda guttolineata: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.);

Taxon Links:

  
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
  
Amphibian Species of the World
  
NatureServe
  
iNaturalist
  
GenBank
  
USGS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

Selected References:
1838 Holbrook, John E. North American Herpetology; or, a Description of the Reptiles Inhabiting the United States. Volume 2. J. Dobson, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 130pp.
1993 Arnold, Steven J., Nancy L. Reagan, and Paul A. Verrell. Reproductive isolation and speciation in plethodontid salamanders. Herpetologica 49(2):216-228
1997 Carlin, Joel L. Genetic and morphological differentiation between Eurycea longicauda longicauda and E. guttolineata (Caudata: Plethodontidae). Herpetologica 53(2):206-217
2010 Kozak, Kenneth H. and John J. Wiens. Accelerated rates of climatic-niche evolution underlie rapid species diversification. Ecology Letter 13:1378-1389

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Thursday 16 July 2026 03:05 CT