Streamside Salamander

The streamside salamander uses a variety of habitats. This species is fossorial, meaning it spends most of its life on land in underground burrows of other species, and under leaf litter and logs. It can be found in forested areas and other habitat types near their breeding streams. During breeding, the streamside salamander prefers to lay its eggs in seasonal streams without fish. However seasonal streams are not an exclusive habitat requirement, as still-water environments have also supported species reproduction.

The salamander's body is relatively short and flaccid. There are 14 to 15 distinct costal grooves when fully grown. The tail is fairly short and thick, and it contains costal grooves that correspond directly to the vertebrae.

Coloring is typically a dark black background, covered in lichen-like markings in gray and brown.

Adult streamside salamanders primarily live below ground, also referred to as fossorial. During the fall and throughout the winter this species migrates to stream habitat during the fall to breed and deposit clutches of eggs under rocks or other debris. The eggs hatch in a few weeks and the larvae develop rapidly. The aquatic larvae metamorphose into juveniles, which transition to life on land.

Adults have lived up to 15 years in captivity, but an average for salamanders surviving to adulthood in the wild may be shorter. 

The streamside salamander is considered a sister taxon to the much more widely distributed small-mouthed salamander, Ambystoma texanum, and has a remarkably similar external appearance.