These salamanders have a short, stocky body (8 - 12 cm), rounded head, short tail and short, stocky legs.

Mole salamanders get their name from their subterranean habits (they are commonly found in underground tunnels and burrows produced by small mammals), and their ability to burrow under rocks, logs, moss, and other vegetative debris. It is here they spend their days foraging for a variety of invertebrates, ranging from earthworms to snails to both larval and adult insects.

Mole salamanders are one of the few salamanders in Tennessee that may exist either as terrestrial adults or as aquatic, gilled, breeding larva (neoteny).
Adults breed in temporary to permanent bodies of water that do not have fish.

The juveniles and adults of this species have a special gland (the parotoid gland) that produces a noxious secretion.

References:

Dodd, C. Kenneth. 2004. The Amphibians of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, Tennessee.