Isthmura gigantea (Taylor, 1939)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Plethodontidae > Subfamily: Hemidactyliinae > Genus: Isthmura > Species: Isthmura gigantea

Oedipus giganteus Taylor, 1939 "1938", Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 25: 266. Holotype: MCZ 8435, by original designation. Type locality: "Jalapa, Veracruz", Mexico.

Bolitoglossa giganteaTaylor, 1941, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 27: 112.

Pseudoeurycea giganteaParra-Olea, Papenfuss, and Wake, 2001, Sci. Pap. Nat. Hist. Mus. Univ. Kansas, 20: 1.

Pseudoeurycea (Isthmura) giganteaDubois and Raffaëlli, 2012, Alytes, 28: 77–161.

Isthmura giganteaRovito, Parra-Olea, Recuero, and Wake, 2015, Zool. J. Linn. Soc., 175: 185. 

English Names

Giant False Brook Salamander (Liner and Casas-Andreu, 2008, Herpetol. Circ., 38: 33).

Veracruz Giant Salamander (Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 642).

Distribution

Known from the pine-oak/cloud-forest interface in the La Joya–Jalapa and Cerro del Borrego region of Veracruz  into northeastern Hidalgo and northern Puebla, Mexico, 930–3048 m elevation.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Mexico

Endemic: Mexico

Comment

In the Pseudoeurycea bellii group of Wake and Lynch, 1976, Sci. Bull. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 25: 61. In the Pseudoeurycea bellii complex, most closely related to Pseudoeurycea naucampatepetl according to Parra-Olea, Papenfuss, and Wake, 2001, Sci. Pap. Nat. Hist. Mus. Univ. Kansas, 20: 1, who removed it from the synonymy of Pseudoeurycea bellii on the basis of unreported molecular evidence. See Parra-Olea, García-París, Papenfuss, and Wake, 2005, Herpetologica, 61:145-158, for additional discussion and presentation of evidence. See photograph, map, description of geographic range and habitat, and conservation status in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 588. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 287, provided a brief account, photograph, and map. Badillo-Saldaña, Ramírez-Bautista, Berriozabal-Islas, and Beteta-Hernández, 2015, Check List, 11 (1: 1521): 1–3, provided a record from the municipality of Tepehuacan de Guerrero in Hidalgo, Mexico and discussed natural history. Flores-Hernández, Morales-Capellán, González-Bonilla, Fernández-Badillo, Ramírez-Cruz, and Hernández-Silva, 2018, Mesoam. Herpetol., 5: 174–175, provided a record from the Municipio de Acaxochitlán, Hidalgo, Mexico. Bryson, Zarza, Grummer, Parra-Olea, Flores-Villela, Klicka, and McCormack, 2018, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 125: 75–84, provided a tree and discussed the phylogenomic diversification of the genus across the Mexican highlands. See account by Cázares-Hernández, Molohua Tzitzihua, Méndez Quiahua, Quiahua Colotl, Temoxtle Marquez, Rodriguez Merino, and Apale Pacheco, 2018, Tlaconetes: 1–92, for photos, habitat, life history, and conservation status. Lemos-Espinal and Dixon, 2016, Amph. Rept. Hidalgo: 339–340, provided a brief account and map for Hidalgo, Mexico. Vásquez-Cruz and Reynoso-Martínez, 2020, Herpetol. Rev., 51: 767, provided a record from the Municipality of Orizaba, Veracruz, Mexico, and briefly discussed the range. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 642–643, provided an account summarizing systematics, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map). 

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