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Northern gray-cheeked salamander
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Amphibia
Order:	Urodela
Family:	Plethodontidae
Subfamily:	Plethodontinae
Genus:	Plethodon
Species:	P. montanus
Binomial name
Plethodon montanus Highton & Peabody, 2000

The northern gray-cheeked salamander (Plethodon montanus) is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae and endemic to the Blue Ridge Mountains and Appalachian Mountains in the eastern United States. It is closely related to the Red-cheeked salamander and the Red-legged salamander. Its natural habitat is temperate forests. It is found under moss, rocks, logs, and bark in cool, moist forests above 2500 feet. Especially found in spruce-fir forests. The Gray-cheeked Salamander commonly eats millipedes, earthworms, crane flies, spiders, and centipedes and less commonly eats ants, mites, and springtails. They eat spiders, moths, flies, beetles, bees, and snails. The male and female perform a courtship, where the male nudges the female with his snout, does a foot dance, then circles under the female and the two then walk together. Like other salamanders, they do not migrate or aggregate during breeding season. It is threatened by habitat loss.

References

1. ^ IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group (2014). "Plethodon montanus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2014: e.T59349A56341130. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2014-1.RLTS.T59349A56341130.en. Retrieved 16 November 2021.
2. Beamer, David; Lannoo, Michael. "Plethodon montanus". Amphibia Web. University of California. Retrieved February 9, 2021.
3. "Northern Gray-cheeked Salamander, Plethodon montanus, Plethodon jordani". Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
4. "Northern Gray-cheeked Salamander Plethodon montanus". Virginia Herpetological Society. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
5. Caruso, Nicholas M.; Rissler, Leslie J. (2019). "Museum Specimens Reveal Life History Characteristics in Plethodon Montanus". Copeia. 107 (4): 622. doi:10.1643/CH-18-145. S2CID 208942773. Copeia., vol. 107, no. 4, 2019, pp. 622–31. Retrieved March 16, 2023

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• IUCN Red List least concern species
• Plethodon
• Amphibians of the United States
• Amphibians described in 2000
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