Desmognathus aeneus Brown and Bishop, 1947

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Plethodontidae > Subfamily: Plethodontinae > Genus: Desmognathus > Species: Desmognathus aeneus

Desmognathus aeneus Brown and Bishop, 1947, Copeia, 1947: 163. Holotype: USNM 123977, by original designation. Type locality: "seepage branch 100 feet north of Peachtree Creek, 1/2 mile S.S.E. of Peachtree, Cherokee County, North Carolina", USA.

Desmognathus chermocki Bishop and Valentine, 1950, Copeia, 1950: 39. Holotype: FMNH 59232, by original designation. Type locality: "Hurricane Creek, Tuscaloose County, Alabama, 1 1/8 miles ENE of bridge crossing creek on Alabama State Route 116". Synonymy by Chermock, 1952, Mus. Pap. Alabama Mus. Nat. Hist., 33: 1-88.

Desmognathus aeneus aeneusChermock, 1952, Mus. Pap. Alabama Mus. Nat. Hist., 33: 29.

Desmognathus aeneus chermockiChermock, 1952, Mus. Pap. Alabama Mus. Nat. Hist., 33: 29. Status rejected by Mount, 1975, Rept. Amph. Alabama: 112.

Desmognathus (Geognathus) abditusDubois and Raffaëlli, 2012, Alytes, 28: 145. See comment under Desmognathus regarding the status of subgenera. 

English Names

Cherokee Salamander (Desmognathus aeneus: Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 28; Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 174; Conant, 1958, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. Cent. N. Am.: 227).

Seepage Salamander (Desmognathus aeneus: Conant, 1975, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. Cent. N. Am., Ed. 2: 269; 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: 20; 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: 11; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 25; Powell, Conant, and Collins, 2016, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. North Am., 4th ed.: 41; Highton, Bonett, and Jockusch, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 25).

Alabama Salamander (Desmognathus chermocki) [no longer recognized]: Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 28; Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 174; Conant, 1958, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. Cent. N. Am.: 227).

Seepage Dusky Salamander (Desmognathus aeneusRaffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 974).

Distribution

Extreme southwestern North Carolina, adjacent southeastern Tennessee, and southwestwards through northern and west-central Georgia to central Alabama, USA.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: United States of America, United States of America - Alabama, United States of America - Georgia, United States of America - North Carolina, United States of America - Tennessee

Endemic: United States of America

Comment

See detailed accounts by Harrison, 1992, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 534: 1–4, and Petranka, 1998, Salamand. U.S. Canada: 159–161. See statement of geographic range, habitat, and conservation status in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 639. Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 173, suggested that this species is ancestral to all Desmognathus other than Desmognathus wrighti and Desmognathus organi, although this merely conflates a lineage with its morphological diagnosis. Harrison, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 696–698, provided an account containing a detailed summary of the literature and range. See Beamer and Lamb, 2020, Zootaxa, 4734: 1–61, for phylogenetic relationships. Beamer and Lamb, 2020, Zootaxa, 4734: 1–61, discussed phylogenetic relationships and suggested that it is unlikely that nominal Desmognathus chermocki would be attached to a cryptic species. Pyron, O'Connell, Lemmon, Lemmon, and Beamer, 2022, Ecol. Evol., 12 (2: e8574): 1–38, provided molecular evidence that the nominal species is monophyletic but composed of at least three phylogeographic lineages. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 974–975, provided an account summarizing systematics, morphology, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map). Tighe, 2022, Smithson. Contrib. Zool., 654: 26, noted the current location of paratypes of Desmognathus aeneus and (p. 27) those of Desmognathus chermocki

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