The Spectacled Salamander (Salamandrina terdigitata) is a species of salamander

Salamander

Salamander is a common name of approximately 500 species of amphibians. They are typically characterized by a superficially lizard-like appearance, with their slender bodies, short noses, and long tails. All known fossils and extinct species fall under the order Caudata, while sometimes the extant...

 in the Salamandridae

Salamandridae

Salamandridae is a family of salamanders consisting of true salamanders and newts. Currently, 74 species have been identified in the northern hemisphere - Europe, Asia, the northern tip of Africa and North America...

 family.
It is found only in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

.
Its natural habitat

Habitat

* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...

s are temperate forest

Forest

A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...

s, river

River

A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...

s, and freshwater marsh

Marsh

In geography, a marsh, or morass, is a type of wetland that is subject to frequent or continuous flood. Typically the water is shallow and features grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, other herbaceous plants, and moss....

es.
It is threatened by habitat loss.

This species is found only in the Apennine Range in humid valleys and shady, overgrown hillsides at altitudes between 200m and 1,200m. It is considered an important indicator species

Indicator species

An indicator species is any biological species that defines a trait or characteristic of the environment. For example, a species may delineate an ecoregion or indicate an environmental condition such as a disease outbreak, pollution, species competition or climate change...

 of environmental health.
It has 4 toes on the hind feet rather than the 5 normally found in other salamanders and newts. It has a warty, brownish-black back, and a rather ribbed appearance on its flanks, with a creamy white, V-shaped mark between the eyes. The underside is covered in black and white markings, with pinkish-red underside to legs and tail.

The Spectacled Salamander is most often found near streams, in dense vegetation, under leaf litter, dead wood or stones. It is nocturnal and terrestrial. s. When threatened, it raises its tail and legs (unkenreflex

Unkenreflex

The unken reflex is a passive defense posture adopted by toads, frogs and salamanders. When threatened by predators, they twist their bodies, or arch their backs and limbs to expose brightly-colored aposematic skin...

), displaying its red underside as a deterrent. Similar warning displays (aposematism

Aposematism

Aposematism , perhaps most commonly known in the context of warning colouration, describes a family of antipredator adaptations where a warning signal is associated with the unprofitability of a prey item to potential predators...

) is shown by newts, the Apennine Yellow-bellied Toad

Apennine Yellow-bellied Toad

The Apennine Yellow-bellied Toad is a species of toad in the Bombinatoridae family. It is endemic to Italy. Its natural habitats are temperate forests, temperate grassland, swamps, freshwater marshes, intermittent freshwater marches, arable land, pastureland, ponds, open excavations, irrigated...

 and the Spotted Salamander

Spotted Salamander

The Spotted Salamander or Yellow-spotted Salamander is a mole salamander common in the eastern United States and Canada. The Spotted Salamander is the State amphibian of South Carolina. It has recently been found that its embryos have algae living inside them in a mutualistic...

. Mating takes place on land in spring. Clutches contain about 30-50 eggs and the larvae take 2-3 months to develop. The Spectacled Salamander female enters water only to lay eggs, while the male, once metamorphosis has taken place, avoids water altogether.

The IUCN Red List follows Mattoccia et al. (2005) and Canestrelli et al. (2006) in separating Salamandrina perspicillata from S. terdigitata.