Desmognathus folkertsi Camp, Tilley, Austin, and Marshall, 2002

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

Desmognathus folkertsi Camp, Tilley, Austin, and Marshall, 2002, Herpetologica, 58: 477. Holotype: USNM 536397, by original designation. Type locality: "south of Wolf Creek Road (34° 46′ 05″ N latitude; 83° 56′ 37″ W longitude) on an upper tributary of the West Fork of Wolf Creek at an elevation of 834 m, Union County, Georgia", USA.

Desmognathus (Leurognathus) folkertsiDubois and Raffaëlli, 2012, Alytes, 28: 145. See comment under Desmognathus regarding the status of this subgenus. 

English Names

Dwarf Black-bellied Salamander (Camp, Marshall, Landau, Austin, and Tilley, 2000, Copeia, 2000: 477; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 16; 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.: 44).

Dwarf Black-belly Salamander (Camp, 2004, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 782: 1).

Dwarf Blackbelly Salamander (Collins and Taggart, 2009, Standard Common Curr. Sci. Names N. Am. Amph. Turtles Rept. Crocodil., ed. 6: 11).

Dwarf Black-bellied Dwarf Salamander (Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 1011).

Distribution

Tributaries of the West Fork of Wolf Creek and Helton Creek, both in Union County, Georgia, as well in adjacent Clay County, North Carolina, USA.

Geographic Occurrence

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

Endemic: United States of America

Comment

Most similar to Desmognathus quadramaculatus (now composed of Desmognathus amphileucus, Desmognathus gvnigeusgwotli, Desmognathus mavrokoilius, and Desmognathus kanawha) according to the original publication. See account by Camp, 2004, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 782: 1–3. First record for North Carolina by Rothermel, Jensen, Camp, and Schwaner, 2007, Herpetol. Rev., 38: 213. Wooten, Camp, and Rissler, 2010, Conserv. Genetics, 11: 835–854, reported on genetic variation across the range of the species. Camp, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 706–708, provided an account containing a detailed summary of the literature and range. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 431, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. Beamer and Lamb, 2020, Zootaxa, 4734: 1–61, in their discussion of Desmognathus mtDNA phylogenetics, noted this species to sit phylogenetically within the Desmognathus marmoratus/Desmognathus 'quadramaculatus' complex of cryptic species. Pyron, O'Connell, Lemmon, Lemmon, and Beamer, 2022, Ecol. Evol., 12 (2: e8574): 1–38, provided molecular evidence that Desmognathus folkertsi is genealogically cohesive. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 1011, provided an account summarizing systematics, morphology, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map). Camp, Felix, and Wooten, 2022, Amphibia-Reptilia, 43: 133–140, reported on morphological homoplasy among semi-aquatic species (Desmognathus welteri, Desmognathus folkertsi, northern "quadramaculatus" (now Desmgnathus kanawha), and southern "quadramaculatus" (now Desmognathus amphileucus). 

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