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This species is known from the area of Las Vigas and La Joya in central Veracruz, Mexico, at 2,200-2,600 m asl.

It is a terrestrial species and inhabits pine-oak and pine forest, woodlands, and madrone (arbutus forest) with abundant shrubby and ericaceous plants. It is generally found under bark and fallen logs, and in leaf-litter. It reproduces by direct development.

The population of this species has declined, it was abundant in the past. Surveys in 2003, 2004, and 2006 by multiple researchers were unsuccessful in finding any animals in suitable habitat. Recent studies performed by Eduardo Pineda and his group and by Sean Rovito found 1 specimen at Las Vigas (2010, Rovito) and 2 specimens at La Joya (2012 Pineda and Aguilar Lopez).

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The main threat is severe habitat loss and degradation as a result of logging, agriculture (including livestock farming), and human settlement.

• 2.1.1 Shifting agriculture
• 7.1.3 Trend Unknown/Unrecorded
• 1.1 Housing & urban areas
• 5.3.5 Motivation Unknown/Unrecorded
• 2.3.2 Small-holder grazing, ranching or farming
• 2.1.2 Small-holder farming

It has not been recorded in any protected areas, though it may be present in Parque Nacional Cofre de Perote (this requires confirmation). Certainly, remaining habitat in the range of this species is in urgent need of protection.

• 1.1 Site/area protection
• 1.2 Resource & habitat protection

Listed as Critically Endangered because its extent of occurrence is less than 100 km², all individuals are known from a single location, and there is a continuing rapid decline in the extent and quality of its habitat, and in the number of mature individuals. Additionally, the species is known to have declined by more than 80% in recent years for reasons that are not fully understood and these declines are likely to continue if the species is not already extinct.

• Hanken, J. 1983. Genetic variation in a dwarfed lineage, the Mexican salamander genus Thorius (Amphibia: Plethodontidae): Taxonomic, ecologic, and evolutionary implications. Copeia 1983: 1051-1073.
• Hanken, J. and Wake, D.B. 1998. Biology of tiny animals: systematics of the minute salamanders (Thorius: Plethodontidae) from Veracruz and Puebla, Mexico, with descriptions of five new species. Copeia: 312-345.
• Parra-Olea, G., García-París, M. and Wake, D.B. 1999. Status of some populations of Mexican salamanders. Revista de Biologia Tropical: 217-223.
• Parra-Olea, G., Papenfuss, T.J. and Wake, D.B. 2001. New species of lungless salamanders of the genus Pseudoeurycea (Amphibia: Caudata: Plethodontidae) from Veracruz, Mexico. Scientific papers of the Natural History Museum of the University of Kansas: 1-9.