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

Amphibia    Caudata    Plethodontidae  
Carolina Sandhills Salamander
Eurycea arenicola Stuart, Beamer, Farrington, Beane, Chek, Pusser, Som, Stephan, Sever, and Braswell, 2020
yoor-EE-see-uh — uh-REN-ih-ko-luh
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:
 New Species. Delimited from E. bislineata by Stuart et al. (2020, Herpetologica 76: 423–444). (Pyron, R. Alexander, Christopher K. Beachy, David A. Beamer, and Kenneth M. Kozak. 2025. Caudata – Salamanders. Pages 10-21 in Kirsten E. Nicholson (Editor), Scientific and Standard English Names of Amphibians and Reptiles of North America North of Mexico, with Comments Regarding Confidence in Our Understanding, 9th Edition. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Lawrence, Kansas. 87 pp.)

(,   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:; 135 Total; 73 Museum; 62 Other

The locality database contains 8,094,832 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: 2023.04.08.20.59.19)
Download map data (GeoJSON):
Polygon Range File Museum Literature Fossil Personal Observation Citizen Science

Province/State Distribution:

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named for its sandy habitat.
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 defined origin.
arenicola — Latin arena = “sand” + -cola = “dweller”; “Sand-dweller”

First instance(s) of published English names:
Carolina Sandhills Salamander (Eurycea arenicola: Stuart, B. L., D. A. Beamer, D. A. Farrington, J. C. Beane, A. A. Chek, L. T. Pusser, H. E. Som, D. Stephan, D. M. Sever, and A. L. Braswell. 2020. A new Two-lined Salamander (Eurycea bislineata Complex) from the Sandhills of North Carolina. Herpetologica 76():423–444);


Selected References:
1993 Arnold, Steven J., Nancy L. Reagan, and Paul A. Verrell. Reproductive isolation and speciation in plethodontid salamanders. Herpetologica 49(2):216-228
2010 Kozak, Kenneth H. and John J. Wiens. Accelerated rates of climatic-niche evolution underlie rapid species diversification. Ecology Letter 13:1378-1389
2020 Stuart, B. L., D. A. Beamer, D. A. Farrington, J. C. Beane, A. A. Chek, L. T. Pusser, H. E. Som, D. Stephan, D. M. Sever, and A. L. Braswell. A new Two-lined Salamander (Eurycea bislineata Complex) from the Sandhills of North Carolina. Herpetologica 76:423–444

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Tuesday 22 September 2026 07:19 CT
Site concept, design, and programming: Travis W. Taggart (CNAH President/Executive Director).
CNAH usage since 31 August 2026: 148,934 human page views • 76,350 visitors • 57,869 file accesses