THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Amphibia    Caudata    Plethodontidae  

Four-toed Salamander
Hemidactylium scutatum (Temminck, 1838)
heh-mee-DAK-til-ee-um — skoo-TAY-tum

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: 2023.04.08.22.52.48)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 3.69 MB

Province/State Distribution:
Canada: New Brunswick Nova Scotia Ontario Quebec
United States: Alabama Arkansas Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Illinois Indiana Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri New Hampshire New Jersey New York North Carolina Ohio Oklahoma Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina Tennessee Vermont Virginia West Virginia Wisconsin

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named for its shielded appearance.
Hemidactylium — Greek hemi- = “half” + dactylos = “finger”; “Half-toed,” referring to toe morphology.
scutatum — Latin scutum = “shield”; “Shielded,” referencing body scaling or appearance.

First instance(s) of published English names:
Four-toed Salamander (Hemidactylium scutatum: Jordan, David Starr. 1876. Manual of the Vertebrates of the Northern United States: Including the District East of the Mississippi River, and North of North Carolina and Tennessee, Exclusive of Marine Species. Jansen, McClurg, and Company, Chicago, Illinois.. 342pp.); Four-toed Salamander (Hemidactylium scutatum: Jordan, David S. 1878. Manual of the Vertebrates of the Northern United States: Including the District East of the Mississippi River, and North of North Carolina and Tennessee, Exclusive of Marine Species. Second Edition, Revised, and Enlarged. Jansen, McClurg & Company, Chicago. pp.); Scaly Lizard (Hemidactylium scutatum: 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); Four-toed Salamander (Hemidactylium scutatum: Garman, H. 1892. A synopsis of the reptiles and amphibians of Illinois. Illinois Laboratory of Natural History Bulletin 3():215-403); Four-toed Salamander (Hemidactylium scutatum: 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.); Scaly Salamander (Hemidactylium scutatum: 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.); Four Toed Salamander (Hemidactylium scutatum: Fowler, Henry W. 1907. The amphibians and reptiles of New Jersey. MacCrellish and Quigley, Trenton, N. J.. 29-250pp.); Scaly Salamander (Hemidactylium scutatum: Hurter, Julius. 1911. Herpetology of Missouri. Transactions of the Academy of Science St. Louis 20(5):59-274); Eastern Four-toed Salamander (Hemidactylium scutatum: 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 Temminck, Coenraad J. Fauna Japonica. Volume 3 (Reptilia). Pages (xxi) + 144 in Coenraad J. Temminck and H. Schlegel. Fauna Japonica sive Descriptio animalium, quae in itinere per Japoniam, jussu et auspiciis, superiorum, qui summum in India Batava imperium tenent, suscepto, annis 1823-1830 collegit, notis, obfervationibu et adumbrationibus illustravit. [Fauna Japonica, or Description of animals, which he collected during a journey through Japan, under the command and auspices of the superiors who hold the supreme power in Batavian India, in the years 1823-1830, and illustrated with notes, illustrations and sketches.] Apud Auctorem [by the author], Lugduni Batavorum [Leiden, Netherlands]. pp.
1941 Green, N. Bayard. The four-toed salamander in Kentucky. Copeia 1941(1):53
1957 Bleakney, J. Sherman and Francis Cook. Additional records of the four-toed salamander, Hemidactylium scutatum, from Nova Scotia. Copeia 1957(2):142-143
1963 Neill, Wilfred T. Hemidactylium. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (1):1
1963 Neill, Wilfred T. Hemidactylium scutatum Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (2):1-2
1968 Dundee, Harold A. First record of the four-toed salamander, Hemidactylium scutatum, in Mississippi, with comments on its disjunct distribution in Arkansas and Louisiana. Journal of Herpetology 1(1-4):101-103
1968 Carter, William A.. First record of Hemidactylium scutatum in Oklahoma. Herpetologica 24(4):328
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

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Friday 05 December 2025 16:52 CT