[1][2] This cryptic salamander is known only from three localities in southern Alabama and the Florida panhandle and is one of the largest animals in the United States to be newly described in the past 100 years.

[1][5] S. reticulata differs from other Siren species in its skin patterning: a patchwork of dark, leopard-like spots covering its back.

[6] The first known reticulated siren was collected in 1970, in Baldwin County, Alabama, described by herpetologist Robert Hughes Mount as not conforming to the typical physical description of S.

[2] In September 2009, American herpetologist David A. Steen was studying Nerodia (water snakes) and turtles at Eglin Air Force Base in Okaloosa County, Florida, when he captured a single specimen of S. reticulata in a crayfish trap.

[1][3][2] Additional trapping efforts between 2009 and 2014 were unsuccessful until three more sirens were found in June 2014 near Lake Jackson in Walton County, Florida.

[8] The holotype is a female captured in Walton County, Florida, measuring 39.7 cm (1.3 ft) from snout to vent and weighing 221 g (0.5 lb).