THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Amphibia    Caudata    Plethodontidae  

Cave Salamander
Eurycea lucifuga Rafinesque, 1822
yoor-EE-see-uh — loo-SIF-yoo-guh

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

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2024.01.23.07.43.37)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.6 MB

Province/State Distribution:
United States: Alabama Arkansas Georgia Illinois Indiana Kansas Kentucky Mississippi Missouri Ohio Oklahoma Tennessee Virginia West Virginia

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named for its tendency to flee the light.
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.
lucifuga — From Latin: lux, lucis – “light”; fugere – “to flee” or “to avoid”

First instance(s) of published English names:
Hoosier Salamander (Spelerpes maculicaudus: Hay, Oliver P. 1892. Batrachians and Reptiles of the State of Indiana. Pages 409-624 in 17th Annual Report of the Indiana Department of Geology and Natural Resources, William B. Burford, Printer and Binder, Indianapolis, Indiana. pp.); Spotted-tail Salamander (Spelerpes maculicaudus: Hurter, Julius. 1911. Herpetology of Missouri. Transactions of the Academy of Science St. Louis 20(5):59-274); Cave Salamander (Eurycea lucifuga: 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:
1822 Rafinesque, Constantine S. On two new salamanders of Kentucky. Kentucky Gazette, New Series. Lexington. 1(9):3
1950 Mittleman, M. Budd. Cavern dwelling salamanders of the Ozark Plateau. Bulletin of the National Speleological Society 12:12-15
1958 Hutchison, Victor H. The distribution and ecology of the cave salamander, Eurycea lucifuga. Ecological Monographs 28(1):1-20
1962 Valentine, Barry D. The range of the cave salamander, Eurycea lucifuga Rafinesque, in Alabama. Herpetologica 18(3):214
1964 Smith, Charles C. The problem of hybridization of the red cave salamander, Eurycea lucifuga (Raf.), and the long-tailed salamander Eurycea longicauda melanopleura (Green). Arkansas Academy of Science Proceedings 18:59-62
1966 Hutchison, Victor H. Eurycea lucifuga. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (24):1-2
1977 Merkle, Donald A. and S. I. Guttman. Geographic variation in the cave salamander Eurycea lucifuga. Herpetologica 33(3):313-321
1991 Collins, Joseph T. Amphibians and reptiles in the upper Mississippi river valley: Systematic and distributional problems. Journal of the Tennessee Academy of Science 66(4):149-152
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 Letters 13:1378-1389

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Friday 05 December 2025 16:54 CT