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This species occurs in humid premontane and lower montane areas in the cordilleras of Costa Rica, at 500-2,048m asl, and adjacent western Panama, at 830-2,050m asl.

It inhabits humid montane forest, also occurring in slightly degraded habitats. It is largely terrestrial, but has been found climbing vegetation. This species breeds by direct development.

It is less common at some sites, however the rate of decline is not known, and animals are still regularly found (Federico Bolaños pers. comm. 2007).

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The main threat is habitat loss due to expanding agriculture and extraction of wood. However, much of its range is protected, and it is probably only threatened in localized situations.

• 7.1.3 Trend Unknown/Unrecorded
• 5.3.5 Motivation Unknown/Unrecorded
• 2.1.2 Small-holder farming

It occurs in the Montverde Biological Reserve, Volcán Irazu National Park, Volcán Poas National Park, Braulio Caurillo National Park, and Guanacaste National Park, all in Costa Rica. In Panama it occurs in Fortuna National Park. It is also found in La Amistad National Park in both countries.

Listed as Least Concern since, although its Extent of Occurrence is probably less than 20,000 km2, it occurs in an area of extensive, suitable habitat which appears not to be under significant threat, it has a presumed large population, and while it is declining this does not appear to be fast enough to qualify for listing in a more threatened category.

• García-París, M., Good, D.A., Parra-Olea, G. and Wake, D.B. 2000. Biodiversity of Costa Rican salamanders: implications of high levels of genetic differentiation and phylogeographic structure for species formation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA: 1640-1647.
• Hanken, J., Wake, D.B. and Savage, J.M. 2005. A solution to the large black salamander problem (genus Bolitoglossa) in Costa Rica and Panamá. Copeia: 227–245.
• Ibáñez, R., Solís, F., Jaramillo, C. and Rand, S. 2000. An overwiew of the herpetology of Panama. In: J.D. Johnson, R.G. Webb and O.A. Flores-Villela (eds), Mesoamerican Herpetology: Systematics, Zoogeography and Conservation, pp. 159-170. The University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, Texas.
• Savage, J.M. 2002. The Amphibians and Reptiles of Costa Rica: A Herpetofauna between two Continents, between two Seas. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
• Wake, D.B. 1987. Adaptive radiation of salamanders in Middle American cloud forests. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 74: 242-264.
• Wake, D.B. and Brame, A.H. 1963. The status of the plethodontid salamander genera Bolitoglossa and Magnadigita. Copeia: 382-387.
• Young, B., Sedaghatkish, G., Roca, E. and Fuenmayor, Q. 1999. El Estatus de la Conservación de la Herpetofauna de Panamá: Resumen del Primer Taller Internacional sobre la Herpetofauna de Panamá. The Nature Conservancy, Arlington, Virginia.