Dwarf waterdog
Necturus punctatus
 
ITIS Species Code:   173625         NatureServ Element Code:   AAAAE01050
 
Taxa: 
Order: 
Family: 
Amphibia
Caudata
Proteidae
NatureServe Global Rank: 
NatureServe State (NC) Rank: 
 
G4
S4
 
Federal Status: 
NC State Status: 
 
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HEXAGONAL KNOWN RANGE:PREDICTED DISTRIBUTION:
 
SUMMARY OF STATEWIDE PREDICTED DISTRIBUTION:
 
Land Unit

US Fish & Wildlife Service
US Forest Service
US National Park Service
US Department of Defense
NC State Parks
NC University System
NC Wildlife Res. Com.
NC Forest Service
NC Div. of Coastal Mgmt.
Local Governments
Non-Governmental Org.
Other Public Lands
Private Lands

GAP Status 1-2
All Protected Lands
Statewide
 
Hectares

17,905.50
2,443.05
12,453.48
83.07
4,143.60
1,893.33
16,883.64
1,710.72
812.88
519.21
9,244.53
385.38
615,874.05

40,198.68
66,376.26
684,352.44
 
Acres

44,245.45
6,036.91
30,773.21
205.27
10,239.06
4,678.52
41,720.37
4,227.28
2,008.67
1,283.00
22,843.73
952.29
1,521,857.62

99,333.08
164,019.28
1,691,071.38
% of Dist. on
Prot. Lands

27.0 %
3.7 %
16.2 %
0.1 %
6.2 %
2.9 %
25.2 %
2.6 %
1.2 %
13.9 %
13.9 %
0.2 %
< 0.1 %

60.6 %
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% of Dist. on
All Lands

2.6 %
0.4 %
1.8 %
< 0.1 %
0.6 %
0.3 %
2.5 %
0.2 %
0.1 %
< 0.1 %
1.4 %
< 0.1 %
90.0 %

5.9 %
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HABITAT DESCRIPTION:
Found in small and medium sized streams of the coastal plain from the fall line to the just above the tidewaters (Martof et al. 1980).

They thrive in larger aquatic sites of cypress and tupelo. They are not known to travel over land so movement is apparently restricted to waterway corridors.

NATURE SERVE GLOBAL HABITAT COMMENTS:

Bottoms of slow, sand- or mud-bottomed streams and connected ditches, cypress swamps; also stream-fed rice fields and mill ponds. Favors bottoms with leaf litter and detritus. Juveniles burrow into bottom. Adults congregate in leaf beds in winter. Eggs probably are attached to undersides of objects in water.

 
MODELING DESCRIPTION:
Occupied Landcover Map Units:
Code NameDescription NC Natural Heritage Program Equivalent
380 Coastal Plain Fresh Water Emergent Emergent vegetation in fresh water seepage bogs, ponds and riverbeds of the coastal plain. Includes alliances dominated by sedges, eelgrass, as well as cane found in unforested cane-brakes. Small Depression Pond, Sandhill Seep, Floodplain Pool, Unforested Floodplain Canebrake, Riverscour Prairies, Vernal Pools
50 Coastal Plain Mixed Bottomland Forests Includes forests dominated by a variety of hardwood species, including sweetgum, cottonwood, red maple. Coastal Plain Bottomland Hardwood (in part), Coastal Plain Levee Forest
49 Coastal Plain Oak Bottomland Forest Bottomland forests dominated by deciduous oak alliances. Oaks represented can include swamp chestnut, cherrybark, willow, and/or overcup oak. Inclusions of loblolly pine temporarily flooded forests occur in patches. Hydrology is temporarily to seasonally flooded. Coastal Plain Bottomland Hardwoods (in part) blackwater subtype, brownwater subtype
30 Cypress-Gum Floodplain Forests Swamps dominated by black or swamp tupelo with or without Taxodium. Seasonally to semi-permanently flooded hydrology. Cypress-Gum Swamps
78 Pond-Cypress - Gum Swamps, Savannas and Lakeshores Cypress dominated swamps and lakeshores. Can include bays dominated by pond cypress or shorelines of coastal plain lakes with a narrow band of cypress. Non-riverine Swamp Forest, Natural Lakeshores (in part)
385 Oak Bottomland Forest and Swamp Forest The swamp chestnut oak, cherrybark oak, shumard oak and sweetgum alliance is one representative. Other alliances are dominated by water, willow, and overcup oaks. Swamp forests can be dominated by sweetgum, red maple, and black gum being dominant. Loblolly can occur in combination with sweetgum and red maple, or with tulip poplar. Includes saturated and semi- to permanently flooded forests in the mountains. Piedmont/Mountain Bottomland Forest, Piedmont/Mountain Swamp Forest
238 Piedmont/Mountain Submerged Aquatic Vegetation Seasonally to permanently flooded areas with aquatic vegetation. Waterlily, pondweed, hydrilla smartweed are a few of the species that can occur. Piedmont/Mountain Semipermanent Impoundment (in part)
239 Piedmont/Mountain Emergent Vegetation Emergent vegetation of all wetland hydrologies. Sites would commonly support species such as tussock sedge, rushs, and cattail alliances. Rocky Bar and Shore (in part)
269 Floodplain Wet Shrublands Saturated shrublands of the Piedmont, includes buttonbush, swamp-loosestrife, decodon and alders. Piedmont/mountain Semipermanent Impoundment
384 Piedmont/Mountain Mixed Bottomland Hardwood Forests Includes temporarily to seasonally forests dominated by hardwood species. Hardwoods include sweetgum, red maple, sycamore which co-occur in a mosaic of bottomland and levee positions. Includes alluvial hardwood forests in the mountains. Hemlock and white pine may occur as inclusions, but are generally mapped separately. Piedmont/Mountain Alluvial Forest, Piedmont/Mountain Levee Forest
8 Open water Open water without aquatic vegetation. No equivalent
View Entire Landcover Legend
 
Additional Spatial Constraints:
Exclude all area outside of known range.
Exclude all water greater than 50 meters from land.
Exclude brackish and salt water habitats.
 
CITATIONS:
Maxson, L. R., P. E. Moler, and B. W. Mansell. 1988. Albumin evolution in salamanders of the genus NECTURUS. J. Herpetol. 22:231-235.

Guttman, S. I., et al. 1990. An electrophoretic analysis of NECTURUS from the southeastern United States. J. Herpetol. 24:163-175.

Behler, J. L., and F. W. King. 1979. The Audubon Society field guide to North American reptiles and amphibians. Alfred A. Knopf, New York. 719 pp.

Martof, B. S., W. M. Palmer, J. R. Bailey, and J. R. Harrison, III. 1980. Amphibians and reptiles of the Carolinas and Virginia. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. 264 pp.

Meffe, G. K., and A. L. Sheldon. 1987. Habitat use by dwarf waterdogs (NECTURUS PUNCTATUS) in South Carolina streams, with life history notes. Herpetologica 43:490-496.

10 March 2005
 
This data was compiled and/or developed by the North Carolina GAP Analysis Project.

For more information please contact them at:
NC-GAP Analysis Project
Dept. of Zoology, NCSU
Campus Box 7617
Raleigh, NC 27695-7617
(919) 513-2853
www.basic.ncsu.edu/ncgap