The southeastern two-toed amphiuma and its more westerly three-toed relative were no strangers to me. But it was not for more than three decades after Wilfred T. Neill found and described the one-toed amphiuma, Amphiuma pholeter, in 1950 that I became acquainted with the little salamander.

In fact, it was not until researcher Paul Moler took a bit of time to describe the habitat of this third species that I finally succeeded in finding a few. It was, it turned out, a mud dweller, but rather being an inhabitant of mud-bottomed ponds and ditches as reported in most mentions, the one-toed amphiuma dwelt in the soupy mud of creek side and swampy seepeages. Small wonder my earlier searches had been futile.

Unlike the two and the three-toed amphiumas, both of which attain adult lengths of about 3 feet, the average size of the one-toed amphiuma is between 9 and 12 inches long. It is very slender; has reduced, lidless, eyes; and its legs, each bearing a single digit, are comparatively tiny. What a wonderfully adapted caudatan.

More photos under the jump...