Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
Single word	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

Eurycea lucifuga Rafinesque, 1822

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Plethodontidae > Subfamily: Hemidactyliinae > Genus: Eurycea > Species: Eurycea lucifuga

Eurycea lucifuga Rafinesque, 1822, Kentucky Gazette, Lexington, N.S.,, 1: 3. Type(s): Not designated or known to exist. Type locality: "near Lexington . . . . in caves and in the dark; but not in water", Fayette County, Kentucky, USA.

Spelerpes lucifuga — Rafinesque, 1832, Atlantic. J. and Friend of Knowledge, Philadelphia, 1: 22.

Gyrinophilus maculicaudus Cope, 1890, Am. Nat., 24: 967. Syntypes: ANSP 10579–81, according to Fowler and Dunn, 1917, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 69: 20. Hutchison, 1966, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 24: 1, stated "Holotype not known to exist". Type locality: "in a spring near . . . . Brookville, [Franklin County,] Indiana." Synonymy by Dunn, 1926, Salamanders Fam. Plethodontidae: 338.

Spelerpes maculicaudus — Hay, 1891, Am. Nat., 25: 1134.

Spelerpes maculicauda — Blatchley, 1897, Annu. Rep. Dept. Geol. Nat. Res. Indiana for 1896: 125.

Eurycea lucifuga — Dunn, 1926, Salamanders Fam. Plethodontidae: 338.

Eurycea longicauda lucifuga — Mittleman, 1942, Proc. New England Zool. Club, 21: 105.

Eurycea lucifuga — Bishop, 1943, Handb. Salamanders: 431.

Eurycea (Eurycea) lucifuga — Raffaëlli, 2007, Les Urodèles du Monde: 182.

Common Names

Spotted Tailed Triton (Spelerpes maculicaudus [no longer recognized]: Brimley, 1907, J. Elisha Mitchell Sci. Soc., 23: 151).

Hoosier Salamander (Spelerpes maculicaudus [no longer recognized]: Hay, 1892, Annu. Rep. Dept. Geol. Nat. Res. Indiana for 1891: 447).

Spotted-tail Salamander (Eurycea lucifuga: Bishop, 1943, Handb. Salamanders: 431).

Cave Salamander (Spelerpes maculicauda [no longer recognized]: Blatchley, 1897, Annu. Rep. Dept. Geol. Nat. Res. Indiana for 1896: 125).

Cave Salamander (Eurycea lucifuga: Bishop, 1943, Handb. Salamanders: 431; Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 54; Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 174; Conant, 1975, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. Cent. N. Am., Ed. 2: 292; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 6; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 31; Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 7; Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 23; Collins and Taggart, 2009, Standard Common Curr. Sci. Names N. Am. Amph. Turtles Rept. Crocodil., ed. 6: 12; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 27; Powell, Conant, and Collins, 2016, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. North Am., 4th ed.: 57; Highton, Bonett, and Jockusch, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 27).

Distribution

Essentially limited to limestone areas, especially in and around limestone caves, in the Ozark uplife of northeastern Oklahoma, southeastern Kansas, northern Arkansas and central and southern Missouri, southern Illinois, southern Indiana and southwestern Ohio through Kentucky and Tennessee to northeastern Mississippi, northern Alabama, and northwestern Georgia; extends along higher elevations of the Appalachians from eastern Tennessee almost to Maryland along the West Virginia–Virginia border, USA.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: United States of America, United States of America - Alabama, United States of America - Arkansas, United States of America - Georgia, United States of America - Illinois, United States of America - Indiana, United States of America - Kansas, United States of America - Kentucky, United States of America - Mississippi, United States of America - Missouri, United States of America - Ohio, United States of America - Oklahoma, United States of America - Tennessee, United States of America - Virginia, United States of America - West Virginia

Endemic: United States of America

Comment

See accounts by Hutchison, 1966, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 24: 1–2, and Petranka, 1998, Salamand. U.S. Canada: 258–261. Merkle and Guttman, 1977, Herpetologica, 33: 313–321, reported on geographic variation. Juterbock, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 750–753, provided a detailed account that summarized the biology and conservation literature. Bonett, Steffen, Lambert, Wiens, and Chippindale, 2014 "2013", Evolution, 68: 443, recovered this species as the sister taxon of a group composed of Eurycea longicauda and Eurycea guttolineata. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 250, provided a brief account, photograph, and map. Altig and McDiarmid, 2015, Handb. Larval Amph. US and Canada: 112–113, provided an account of larval morphology and biology. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 560–562, provided an account, summarizing systematics, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map).

External links:

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For access to general information see Wikipedia
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For access to relevant technical literature search Google Scholar
For images search CalPhoto Images and Google Images
To search the NIH genetic sequence database, see GenBank
For additional information see AmphibiaWeb report
For information on conservation status and distribution see the IUCN Redlist
For information on distribution, habitat, and conservation see the Map of Life
For related information on conservation and images as well as observations see iNaturalist