Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
Single word	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

Dicamptodon ensatus (Eschscholtz, 1833)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Ambystomatidae > Genus: Dicamptodon > Species: Dicamptodon ensatus

Triton ensatus Eschscholtz, 1833, Zool. Atlas, Part 5: 6. Type(s): Not known to exist, but thought by Stejneger and Barbour, 1917, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept.: 11, to be either in Dorpat (presumably now Estonian National Museum in Tartu, Estonia) or Rostock (Rostock University in Germany). Type locality: "Umbegung der Bai St. Francisco auf Californien" (= vicinity of the Bay of San Francisco, California), USA; "probably near Fort Ross, Sonoma County", California, USA, according to Nussbaum, 1976, Misc. Publ. Mus. Zool. Univ. Michigan, 149: 4.

Plethodon ensatus — Cope, 1868 "1867", Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 19: 167. In error, based on specimens of Ensatina eschscholtzii oregonensis according to A.H. Brame (personal communication).

Dicamptodon ensatus — Strauch, 1870, Mem. Acad. Imp. Sci. St. Petersbourg, Ser. 7, 16 (4): 69; Van Denburgh, 1916, Proc. California Acad. Sci., Ser. 4, 6: 221; Bishop, 1943, Handb. Salamanders: 175.

Ambystoma ensatum — Grinnell and Camp, 1917, Univ. California Publ. Zool., 17: 139.

English Names

Eschscholtz's Lizard (Yarrow, 1882, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 24: 21).

Marbled Salamander (Storer, 1925, Univ. California Publ. Zool., 27: 42).

Pacific Giant Salamander (Slevin, 1928, Occas. Pap. California Acad. Sci., 16: 36; Bishop, 1943, Handb. Salamanders: 175; Stebbins, 1951, Amph. W. North Am.: 49; Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 16; Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 174; Stebbins, 1966, Field Guide W. North Am. Rept. Amph.: 36; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 5).

California Giant Salamander (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 28; 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; Stebbins, 2003, Field Guide W. Rept. Amph., Ed. 3: 158; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 17; Collins and Taggart, 2009, Standard Common Curr. Sci. Names N. Am. Amph. Turtles Rept. Crocodil., ed. 6: 10; Highton, Bonett, and Jockusch, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 26).

Distribution

Pacific coast and adjacent mountain ranges in California, from southern Mendocino County to southern Santa Cruz County, 0–900 m elevation, USA.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: United States of America, United States of America - California

Endemic: United States of America, United States of America - California

Comment

See accounts by Anderson, 1969, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 76: 1–2 (this written prior to the description of Dicamptodon copei or the resurrection of Dicamptodon aterrimus and Dicamptodon tenebrosus), Petranka, 1998, Salamand. U.S. Canada: 150–151, and Bury, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 653–654. See also Nussbaum, 1976, Misc. Publ. Mus. Zool. Univ. Michigan, 149: 1–94, and Good, 1989, Evolution, 43: 728-744. See comment under Dicamptodon tenebrosus. Stebbins, 2003, Field Guide W. Rept. Amph., Ed. 3: 158–159, provided a brief account, figure, and map, and noted a zone of hybridization with Dicampton tenebrosus in Mendocino County, California, USA. See statement of geographic range, habitat, and conservation status in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 637. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 89, provided a brief account, photo, and map. Altig and McDiarmid, 2015, Handb. Larval Amph. US and Canada: 96–98, provided an account of larval morphology. Lavin, Callahan, Connell, and Girman, 2021, Zootaxa, 5068: 60–80, reported on molecular phylogeography. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 130–132, provided an account, summarizing systematics, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map).

External links:

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For access to general information see Wikipedia
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For images search CalPhoto Images and Google Images
To search the NIH genetic sequence database, see GenBank
For additional information see AmphibiaWeb report
For information on conservation status and distribution see the IUCN Redlist
For information on distribution, habitat, and conservation see the Map of Life
For related information on conservation and images as well as observations see iNaturalist
For access to available specimen data for this species, from over 350 scientific collections, go to Vertnet.