It is a small sized salamander. Its skin is smooth. Even it has a very variable coloration, the most common one is a brown color in the dorsal skin from the head and the body, with blue or gray spots on the belly and a red tail. This species needs well preserved forest to live, with abundant leaf litter and vegetation, and they like to live in humid areas, often close to streams. They are active during humid nights when they climb bushes to forage. Cuetzalan salamander belongs to the group of lungless salamanders, which means that it breaths only through skin, that is why its skin must be always humid. It is a direct developing amphibian; tiny fully developed salamanders emerge from its eggs. It is endemic to the North Sierra of Puebla and it is a critically endangered species, threatened by deforestation.