Texas blind salamander

Plethodontidae

Due to its special location, there is very little data on the natural history of these amphibians; What little is available is obtained from observations on captive specimens.

To feed, the salamanders probing the Fund with lateral movements of the head; The less contact, the mouth opens quickly and the prey is immediately absorbed and subjected by their numerous sharp teeth. It is believed that sensitivity to vibrations of water also helps these salamanders to locate food.
Adults eat amphipods, blind shrimp (Palaemonetes antrorum), Daphnia, small snails and other invertebrates. Cannibalism is also documented. Juveniles feed on copepods.

(Little seasonal variations in the interior of the which) apparently allow its reproduction at any time of the year (been pregnant females and juveniles in all months of the year).
The first reproduction in captivity of the Texas blind salamander took place at the Zoo in Cincinnati (), and later, in the Aquarium of Dallas.
The size of implementation ranged from 8 to 21 eggs for spawning. Eggs, without pigmentation, sand they stuck pieces of gravel individually or in clusters of two or three eggs. After the time, incubation lasted for 12-16 days, and the larvae began to feed a month after hatching.
Apparently, the presence of light does not affect the development of embryos, but if the temperature variations of the water, which must remain relatively constant in the interior of the aquifer (21 ° C).

United States. This species is restricted to a small area of more than 40 km2 in the aquifer Edwards, San Marcos Springs, of the Hays County (northeast of Texas).

• Family Plethodontidae
Eurycea tridentifera (Comal blind salamander). Texas
Eurycea troglodytes (Valdina farms salamander). Texas.
Eurycea tynerensis (salamander neoténica of Texas).
Eurycea wallacei (Georgia blind salamander).
Eurycea waterlooensis (Austin blind salamander).
Gyrinophilus spp. (cave salamanders)

• Family Mudpuppy
Proteus anguinus (Olm). Europe: Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

• Sensitive to changes in water quality and therefore vulnerable to pollutants of groundwater, act as markers of the health of the aquifer.

• The first copies of Eurycea rathbuni were seen for the first time in 1895, to perforate an artesian well of 58 m deep in the city of San Marcos, Texas, (in what is now the campus of Texas State University). The following year, Leonhard Hess Stejneger, Norwegian zoologist who then worked at the Smithsonian Institute, described it and ranked as Texas rathbuni.
More than half a century later, in 1965, Mitchell and Reddell proposed the transfer of T. rathbuni genus Eurycea, change supported by phylogenetic analyses of Chippindale et to the. (2000). However, there are still disputes.

• Status CITES: no appendix.
• IUCN Status: Vulnerable (2004)

Due to the unique location of the species within the convoluted galleries of the karstic aquifer system, the total size of the population of this species is unknown. The existing counts (varying from one year to another, in the order of hundreds) only relate to individuals found at the exits of the San Marcos Springs pipe; Currently, most of the recovered specimens are youth (Chippindale 2005).

All the endemic species of the aquifer are very sensitive to changes in water quality and therefore vulnerable to pollutants of groundwater. Eurycea rathbuni is at the top of the food pyramid of the system; If any of the species is lost, you will have a catastrophic effect on the Texas blind salamander populations.
Another major threat to the aquifer system is the excess of pumping, which can allow entry of salt water in areas that are now freshwater.