THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY
Loading taxon account
Retrieving account information and occurrence data...

Amphibia    Caudata    Plethodontidae  
Three-lined Salamander
Eurycea guttolineata (Holbrook, 1838)
yoor-EE-see-uh — goo-toh-lin-ee-AY-tuh
Taxon Links
iNaturalist
Amphibian Species of the World
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
NatureServe
GenBank
USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

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

(,   Museum Voucher) (,   Observation) (,   Literature Record), (,   Citizen Science), (  Fossil)
Open icons indicate questionable records, including those with coordinate uncertainty greater than 10,000 m (approximately 6 miles). Click a marker to view metadata.
Occurrences:; 5,249 Total; 3,165 Museum; 2,084 Other

The locality database contains 8,094,850 records, and geographic and taxonomic errors exist. Logged-in, registered users may report a potential issue directly from the marker popup.
Shaded range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH. (Version: 2023.04.08.20.59.18)
Download map data (GeoJSON):
Polygon Range File Museum Literature Fossil Personal Observation Citizen Science

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.);


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: Saturday 10 October 2026 00:39 CT
Site concept, design, and programming: Travis W. Taggart (CNAH President/Executive Director).
CNAH usage since 31 August 2026: 248,712 human page views • 136,441 visitors • 124,787 file accesses