Description

A large, robust member of its genus, identified by having four digits on the relatively long hind limb, by having a broad head well demarcated from the neck, and by having a relatively short body (16-18, mode 17, costal grooves). Perhaps the stockiest slender salamander; its proportions are more akin to those of Web-toed Salamanders (Genus Hydromantes). Unlike other Batrachoseps, it has NO DORSAL STRIPE and a SHORT TAIL, only about 3/4 as long as its body. It has a broad head and snout, and large eyes. These are sometimes dense enough to form a continuous network of silvery threads carpeting the entire dorsum. The limbs are long and when the limbs are adpressed to the body from 2 - 5 costal folds are uncovered. The ground color is dark brown-black with silvery patches on the head and and over the shoulders; in some populations the silvery pigmentation covers much of the dorsal surface of the trunk (photographs of living specimens in Marlow et al. 1979; and Yanev and Wake 1981).

Among described taxa this species is most closely related to Batrachoseps wrighti from Oregon and is only distantly related to described species from California

See another account at californiaherps.com.