Coffee Grove Salamander vs laverca

Aquiloeurycea cafetalera compared with Alauda arvensis

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	Coffee Grove Salamander	laverca
Kingdom same	Animalia (Animals)	Animalia (Animals)
Phylum same	Chordata (cordados)	Chordata (cordados)
Class	Amphibia (Anfíbios)	Aves (ave)
Order	Caudata (caudados)	Passeriformes (Songbirds)
Family	Plethodontidae	Alaudidae
Genus	Aquiloeurycea	Alauda
Species	Aquiloeurycea cafetalera	Alauda arvensis

Evolutionary Relationship

Coffee Grove Salamander and laverca share a common ancestor at the Phylum level: Chordata. (cordados)

Conservation Status

Coffee Grove Salamander

VU — Vulnerable

laverca

VU — Vulnerable

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	Coffee Grove Salamander	laverca
Diet	—	—
Average Lifespan	—	—
Average Length	—	—
Average Weight	—	—

Habitat & Geographic Range

Coffee Grove Salamander

Habitat

Typically found in freshwater habitats, moist forests, and wetlands.

Range

Found in Mexico. Currently classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, this species faces significant conservation challenges across its range.

laverca

Habitat

Found across multiple habitat types including temperate broadleaf and mixed forests, tundra, and tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests spanning the Australasia and Oceanian realms.

Range

Widely distributed across Europe (5 countries), North America (Canada, United States), and Oceania and the Pacific (Australia, New Zealand). Currently classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, this species faces significant conservation challenges across its range.

Coffee Grove Salamander

The Coffee Grove Salamander (Aquiloeurycea cafetalera) is a small, fully terrestrial plethodontid salamander in the family Plethodontidae, endemic to the cloud forests and coffee agroforestry zones of the Sierra de Juárez in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. Like all plethodontid salamanders, it is lungless, relying entirely on cutaneous gas exchange through its moist skin, making it exquisitely sensitive to desiccation and temperature changes. Adults are slender, with a reddish-brown dorsum and light-coloured venter, typically measuring 5–8 centimetres in total length. The species inhabits cool, humid cloud forest floor environments and the leaf litter and bark of shade-grown coffee plantations at elevations approximately between 1,500 and 2,500 metres—an association that gives it its common name. The presence of this salamander in coffee agroforestry systems highlights the biodiversity value of traditional shade-grown cultivation compared to sun-grown monocultures. The Coffee Grove Salamander is classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN due to its restricted distribution, estimated extent of occurrence below 5,000 square kilometres, and ongoing threats from habitat loss through deforestation, conversion to sun-grown coffee cultivation, and climate-driven changes to cloud forest conditions. No ex situ conservation programmes are known to be in place.

laverca

Celebrada na literatura e poesia europeia por seu complexo e melodioso canto entoado durante espetaculares voos de exibição, a cotovia-comum (Alauda arvensis) sobe verticalmente centenas de metros acima de campos abertos, pradarias e charnecas da Europa e Ásia, produzindo um torrente ininterrupto de canto que pode durar até uma hora. Os machos podem produzir mais de 700 frases de canto distintas. Outrora extremamente abundante nos campos europeus, as populações de cotovias diminuíram mais de 70% desde 1970 devido à intensificação agrícola.