Amphibian Species of the World 5.6, an Online Reference

Desmognathus monticola Dunn, 1916, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 29: 73. Holotype: USNM 38313, by original designation. Type locality: "Elk Lodge Lake, near Brevard, [Transylvania County,] North Carolina; altitude about 3000 feet", USA.

Desmognathus monticola monticola — Hoffman, 1951, J. Elisha Mitchell Sci. Soc., 67: 251.

Desmognathus monticola jeffersoni Hoffman, 1951, J. Elisha Mitchell Sci. Soc., 67: 250. Holotype: USNM 126891, by original designation. Type locality: "Saddle Hollow on Jarman's Mountain, 2 miles west of Crozet, Albemarle County, Virginia (elevation 1600 feet)", USA.

English Names

Seal Salamander (Desmognathus monticola: Bishop, 1943, Handb. Salamanders: 205; Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 30; Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 174; Conant, 1975, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. Cent. N. Am., Ed. 2: 265; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 5; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 31; 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: 21; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 16; Collins and Taggart, 2009, Standard Common Curr. Sci. Names N. Am. Amph. Turtles Rept. Crocodil., ed. 6: 12; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 25).

Blue Ridge Seal Salamander (Desmognathus monticola jeffersoni: Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 30).

Virginia Seal Salamander (Desmognathus monticola jeffersoni: Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 174; Conant, 1975, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. Cent. N. Am., Ed. 2: 266; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 5).

Seal Salamander (Desmognathus monticola monticola: Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 30).

Appalachian Seal Salamander (Desmognathus monticola monticola: Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 174; Conant, 1975, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. Cent. N. Am., Ed. 2: 266; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 5).

Distribution

Western Pennsylvania and western Maryland south along the Appalachian highlands through West Virginia, western Virginia, eastern Kentucky, eastern Tennessee, western North Carolina, extreme western South Carolina, northwestern Georgia, to southwestern Alabama, USA. A seemingly introduced population in northwestern Arkansas (see comment).

Comment

Before Grobman, 1945, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 58: 40, this species was commonly referred to as Desmognathus phoca. Beamer and Lamb, 2008, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 47: 143-153, discussed a population of Desmognathus conanti that had previously been confused with Desmognathus monticola in the Red Hills of Alabama. Bonett, Kozak, Vieites, Bare, Wooten, and Trauth, 2007, BMC Ecol., 7(7): 1-11, discussed phylogeography and a seemingly introduced population in the Arkansas Ozarks. Matson, Pfingsten, Davic, and Pucci, 2010, Herpetol. Rev., 41: 17-18, rejected the record by Graziano and Reid, 2006, J. Kansas Herpetol., 17: 6, for southern Ohio as based on misidentified Desmognathus fuscus.

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