Corsican Fire Salamander
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The Corsican fire salamander (''Salamandra corsica'') is a species of
salamander Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by their lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults. All t ...
in the family Salamandridae found only on the island of
Corsica Corsica ( , , ; ; ) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the Regions of France, 18 regions of France. It is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of the Metro ...
as an
endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...
species. In former times, this species was known as a subspecies of the widespread but continental-distributed
fire salamander The fire salamander (''Salamandra salamandra'') is a common species of salamander found in Europe. It is black with yellow spots or stripes to a varying degree; some specimens can be nearly completely black while on others the yellow is dominant ...
, which may appear quite similar.


Description

''Salamandra corsica'' are glossy black salamanders with yellow splotches on their dorsum that have adult sizes ranging from 120 - 300 mm. Males are generally smaller than females. The head is wider than it is long, and is rounded in shape. This species possess bright yellow colored paratoid glands and two lines of poison glands that run in parallel down their ventral sides, and two irregular rows of glands down the tail. The snout and toes are blunt and round, as is the tip of the tail. Males have pronounced cloacas, whose opening is a single longitudinal fold. ''Salamandra corsica'' has clear costal grooves running down the ventral sides. These salamanders have smooth, shiny skin, and easily visible yet reduced paratoid glands compared to other species in the ''Salamandr''a genus.


Habitat

The Corsican fire salamander mainly lives in the
deciduous In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed Leaf, leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...
mountain forests of the island. On the west coast near in the Calanques de Piana, salamanders have been found near sea level, but in general they appear as inhabitant of forests with deciduous oaks, such as sessile oak, downy oak and sweet chestnut gardens near the human settlements. Forests with the maritime pine and the Corsican black pine (''Pinus nigra'' subsp. ''salzmannii'' var. ''corsicana'') are also inhabited. Densely growing ferns ('' Pteridium aquilinum''), tree heath, and other shrubby vegetation might diminish the fire salamander population, also as
evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has Leaf, foliage that remains green and functional throughout the year. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which lose their foliage completely during the winter or dry season. Consisting of many diffe ...
sclerophyll Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaves, short Internode (botany), internodes (the distance between leaves along the stem) and leaf orientation which is parallel or ...
ic woods, such as holly oak forests because of their minor
precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls from clouds due to gravitational pull. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, rain and snow mixed ("sleet" in Commonwe ...
sum.
Beech Beech (genus ''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to subtropical (accessory forest element) and temperate (as dominant element of Mesophyte, mesophytic forests) Eurasia and North America. There are 14 accepted ...
forests are populated in the Castagniccia and also in the south of the island where this tree assembles dense azonal forests and does not appear mainly as upper
tree line The tree line is the edge of a habitat at which trees are capable of growing and beyond which they are not. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually low ...
, as in the western mountain ranges of Corsica. The midranges of the Corsican mountains seem to be preferred because of their constant humidity and moderate temperatures. Constant water in the creeks coming down from the summits supports good development of the larvae over the hot summer. They are born when the snow has melted away and the streams are safe again for the newborn larvae. Their surroundings and stone runs also offer the adults preferred places to hide from the daylight or the summer drought.


Unexpected ways of reproduction

The German
herpetologist Herpetology (from Ancient Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning "reptile" or "creeping animal") is a branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, salamanders, and caecilians (Gymnophiona)) and reptiles (in ...
Robert Mertens Robert Friedrich Wilhelm Mertens (1 December 1894 – 23 August 1975) was a German herpetologist. Several taxa of reptiles are named after him.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore ...
found a pregnant Corsican fire salamander in the
Restonica The Restonica is a small river in the department of Haute-Corse, Corsica, France. It is a tributary of the river Tavignano. The river has a steep and rocky course with many pools and waterfalls. The valley contains two lakes, and is a popular tou ...
Valley that gave birth to four offspring without
gill A gill () is a respiration organ, respiratory organ that many aquatic ecosystem, aquatic organisms use to extract dissolved oxygen from water and to excrete carbon dioxide. The gills of some species, such as hermit crabs, have adapted to allow r ...
s and already with the characteristic black and yellow of the adults. At the same time, he found normally developing aquatic larvae with their three characteristic feathery external gills on each side of their heads and
camouflage Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the b ...
blending into the pond's substrate. The reproductive ability of
viviparity In animals, viviparity is development of the embryo inside the body of the mother, with the maternal circulation providing for the metabolic needs of the embryo's development, until the mother gives birth to a fully or partially developed juv ...
is well known from the fire salamander's northwest Spanish
subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...
, ''S. s. bernardezi'' ( Asturian fire salamander) and the alpine salamander (''S. atra'') from the central and east
Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...
. This can be interpreted as a local adaptation to xerothermic
climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in a region, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteoro ...
conditions and lack of ponds and brooks.


Threats

The Corsican fire salamander is threatened by
habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...
, forest works, road construction, and traffic. The species may also be threatened by water pollution,
wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a ...
s, and wood pasture. Introducing invasive fish species, such as
rainbow trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributary, tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in North America and Asia. The steelhead (sometimes called steelhead trout) is an Fish migration#Classification, ...
in the larval habitats diminishes the reproduction of the island's fire salamanders significantly. Indigenous anadromous fish, such as the Mediterranean trout ''Salmo cettii'', which is also highly endangered, seems not to have a significant influence on the amphibians.


References

* *Robert Mertens: ''Die Amphibien und Reptilien Korsikas'' – Senckenberg. Biol. 38 (1957, Heft 3/4): 175–192, location=Frankfurt/M. *Thomas Mutz: ''Salamandra corsica (Savi, 1838) – Korsischer Feuersalamander.'' – In: Burkhard Thiesmeier & Kurt Grossenbacher (Eds.): ''Handbuch der Reptilien und Amphibien Europas, Schwanzlurche IIB.'' Aula Verlag Wiebelsheim (Germany), 2004, p. 1029–1046. *


External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q665014 Amphibians described in 1838 Amphibians of Europe Salamandra Endemic fauna of Corsica Taxa named by Paolo Savi Taxonomy articles created by Polbot