Amphibian Species of the World 5.6, an Online Reference

Hemidactylium pacificum Cope, 1865, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 17: 195. Holotype: USNM 6733 according to Dunn, 1926, Salamanders Fam. Plethodontidae: 237. Type locality: "Santa Barbara, on the coast of Southern California", USA; corrected to one of the northern Channel Islands by Van Denburgh, 1905, Proc. California Acad. Sci., Ser. 3, 4: 5-6.

Batrachoseps pacificus — Cope, 1869, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 21: 99.

Batrachoseps attenuatus pacificus — Dunn, 1926, Salamanders Fam. Plethodontidae: 236. Bishop, 1943, Handb. Salamanders: 320.

Batrachoseps pacificus pacificus — Campbell, 1931, Copeia, 1931: 133. Stebbins, 1966, Field Guide W. North Am. Rept. Amph.: 46.

Batrachoseps pacificus — Brame and Murray, 1968, Sci. Bull. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 4: 22.

Batrachoseps (Batrachoseps) pacificus pacificus — Jackman, Applebaum, and Wake, 1997, Mol. Biol. Evol., 14: 883-891.

Batrachoseps (Batrachoseps) pacificus — Jockusch, Wake, and Yanev, 1998, Contrib. Sci. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 472: 1-17. Jockusch and Wake, 2002, Biol. J. Linn. Soc., 76: 363.

English Names

Pacific Lizard (Batrachoseps pacificus: Yarrow, 1882, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 24: 21).

Pacific Worm-salamander (Batrachoseps attenuatus pacificus: Bishop, 1943, Handb. Salamanders: 323).

Pacific Slender Salamander (Batrachoseps pacificus: Stebbins, 1951, Amph. W. North Am.: 115; Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 174; Stebbins, 1966, Field Guide W. North Am. Rept. Amph.: 46).

Island Salamander (Batrachoseps attenuatus pacificus: Slevin, 1928, Occas. Pap. California Acad. Sci., 16: 43).

Channel Islands Salamander (Batrachoseps pacificus: Storer, 1925, Univ. California Publ. Zool., 27: 43).

Channel Islands Slender Salamander (Batrachoseps pacificus: Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 5; Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 6; Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 20; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2008, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 37: 15; Collins and Taggart, 2009, Standard Common Curr. Sci. Names N. Am. Amph. Turtles Rept. Crocodil., ed. 6: 11; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 25).

Channel Islands Slender Salamander (Batrachoseps pacificus pacificus: Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 40; Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 174; Stebbins, 1966, Field Guide W. North Am. Rept. Amph.: 46; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 29; Stebbins, 2003, Field Guide W. Rept. Amph., Ed. 3: 187).

Distribution

East Anacapa, Middle Anacapa, West Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa and San Miguel Islands; coastal central California and adjacent inland regions between Santa Cruz and San Luis Obispo counties, California, USA.

Comment

Yanev, 1980, in Power (ed.), California Islands: 531-550, considered Batrachoseps relictus and Batrachoseps major to be subspecies of Batrachoseps pacificus. A.H. Brame in Frost, 1985, Amph. Species World: 573, disagreed with this interpretation because of the morphological distinctiveness of these allopatric forms; see Brame and Murray, 1968, Sci. Bull. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 4: 1-35. See Batrachoseps major. Highton, Tilley, and Wake in Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 20, noted that unnamed populations on the southern California mainland, nominally part of Batrachoseps pacificus remain to be named and traced the convoluted taxonomic history of this binominal. In the Batrachoseps (Batrachoseps) pacificus group of Jockusch, Wake, and Yanev, 1998, Contrib. Sci. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 472: 1-17, and Jockusch and Wake, 2002, Biol. J. Linn. Soc., 76: 363. Stebbins, 2003, Field Guide W. Rept. Amph., Ed. 3: 187-188, and Raffaëlli, 2007, Les Urodèles du Monde: 199, provided brief accounts, figures, and maps.

External Links

Please note: these links will take you to external websites not affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History. We are not responsible for their content.

• For additional sources of information from other sites search Google
• For images search Arkive, CalPhoto Images and Google Images
• To search the NIH genetic sequence database, see GenBank
• For information aggregation from other sites and some original accounts see AmphibiaWeb report
• For further information on conservation status and distribution see the IUCN Redlist
• For related information on conservation and images as well as observation see iNaturalist;
• for a quick link to their maps see iNaturalist KML
• For access to informatoin on fossils see Lisanfos