Mole salamanders are found in south eastern lowland areas of the Gulf Coastal Plains of the United States. Their main range extends from eastern Texas to southern South Carolina and inland as far as southern Illinois. It is absent from southern Florida and Louisiana, and there are separate populations in Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, northern South Carolina, northern Georgia and northern Alabama. There is also a small isolated population within the southernmost tip of Indiana. They inhabit floodplain pine or broadleaf forests, especially near gum and cypress ponds. Adults live under the surface of leaf litter while larvae are aquatic and found in ponds and ephemeral, fish-free waters.
