Batrachoseps Bonaparte, 1839, Iconograph. Fauna Ital., 2 (Fasc. 26): fol. 131. Type species: Salamandrina attenuata Eschscholtz, 1833, by monotypy.
Plethopsis Bishop, 1937, Herpetologica, 1: 93. Type species: Plethopsis wrighti Bishop, 1937, by monotypy. Synonymy by Stebbins and Lowe, 1949, Copeia, 1949: 128.
Slender Salamanders (Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 173; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 5; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 29; Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 5; Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 19; Stebbins, 2003, Field Guide W. Rept. Amph., Ed. 3: 182; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2008, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 37: 15; Liner and Casas-Andreu, 2008, Herpetol. Circ., 38: 28; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 24).
Oregon and California (USA) to northern Baja California (Mexico).
See Brame and Murray, 1968, Sci. Bull. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 4: 1-35, for key to most of the species. Jockusch, Wake, and Yanev, 1998, Contrib. Sci. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 472: 1-17, recognized four new species groups within the subgenus Batrachoseps (Batrachoseps nigriventris group: Batrachoseps nigriventris, Batrachoseps simatus, Batrachoseps stebbinsi, Batrachoseps gregarius; Batrachoseps relictus group: Batrachoseps diabolicus, Batrachoseps kawia, Batrachoseps regius, Batrachoseps relictus; Batrachoseps attenuatus group: Batrachoseps attenuatus group: Batrachoseps attenuatus; Batrachoseps pacificus group: Batrachoseps pacificus, Batrachoseps aridus, and possibly Batrachoseps gabrieli). Jockusch, Yanev, and Wake, 2001, Herpetol. Monogr., 15: 54-99, discussed phylogenetics of the species in central coastal California, USA. Jockusch and Wake, 2002, Biol. J. Linn. Soc., 76: 361-391, discussed genetic diversification and phylogeny in the taxon, noted several unnamed species (one in Plethopsis). See species accounts for most species in Petranka, 1998, Salamand. U.S. Canada: 219-240. See also Wake and Jockusch, 2000, in Bruce et al., Biol. Plethodontid Salamanders: 99-116, for discussion of evolution within the genus. In the tribe Batrachosepsini of Vieites, Román, Wake, and Wake, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 59: 633. Powell, Collins, and Hooper, 2011, Key Herpetofauna U.S. & Canada, 2nd Ed.: 17-20, provided a key to the species.
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