Necturus alabamensis Viosca, 1937

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Proteidae > Genus: Necturus > Species: Necturus alabamensis

Necturus alabamensis Viosca, 1937, Copeia, 1937: 121. Holotype: USNM 102676, by original designation. Type locality: "Black Warrior River near Tuscaloosa, [Tuscaloosa County,] Alabama", USA.

Necturus beyeri alabamensisHecht, 1958, Proc. Staten Island Inst. Arts Sci., 21: 17.

Necturus alabamensisNeill, 1963, Herpetologica, 19: 166.

Necturus punctatus alabamensisBrode, 1970, Dissert. Abstr. Internatl., Ser. B, 30: 5288.

Necturus (Necturus) alabamensisDubois and Raffaëlli, 2012, Alytes, 28: 147.

English Names

Alabama Waterdog (Conant, 1958, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. Cent. N. Am.: 200; Conant, 1975, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. Cent. N. Am., Ed. 2: 244; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 7; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 34; Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 7).

Black Warrior Waterdog (Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 24; Collins and Taggart, 2009, Standard Common Curr. Sci. Names N. Am. Amph. Turtles Rept. Crocodil., ed. 6: 15).

Black Warrior River Waterdog (Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 28; Highton, Bonett, and Jockusch, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 30).

Distribution

Restricted to the Upper Black Warrior River drainage, Alabama (see comment); closely related unnamed species throughout the Mobile River Basin of eastern Mississippi, southeastern to northern Alabama, and into adjacent northwestern Georgia, USA. 

Geographic Occurrence

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

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

Comment

Brode, 1970, Dissert. Abstr. Internatl., Ser. B, 30: 5288–5289, suggested that Necturus alabamensis (as Necturus punctatus alabamensis), Necturus beyeri (as Necturus punctatus beyeri), and Necturus punctatus (as Necturus punctatus punctatus) form a series of intergrading populations. Species status supported by Guttman, Weigt, Moler, Ashton, Mansell, and Peavy, 1990, J. Herpetol., 24: 163–175 (who also suggested that Necturus alabamensis might be a composite of two species). The status of Necturus lodingi deserves additionally scrutiny and for that reason is recognized in this catalogue (see Necturus lodingi).  Bailey and Moler, 2003, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 761: 1–2, reveiwed the species. Bailey, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 866–867, provided a detailed account that summarized the biology and conservation literature. 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: 598. Altig and McDiarmid, 2015, Handb. Larval Amph. US and Canada: 126–127, provided an account of larval morphology and biology. Chabarria, Murray, Moler, Bart, Crother, and Guyer, 2018, J. Zool. Syst. Evol. Res., 56: 352–363, discussed the phylogenetic placement of this species and noted that the Mobile Bay Basin component of nominal Necturus beyeri (Necturus cf. beyeri Mobile River clade) forms the sister lineage of this species. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 478–479, provided an account, summarizing systematics, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map).

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