Rhyacotriton variegatus Stebbins and Lowe, 1951

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Rhyacotritonidae > Genus: Rhyacotriton > Species: Rhyacotriton variegatus

Rhyacotriton olympicus variegatus Stebbins and Lowe, 1951, Univ. California Publ. Zool., 50: 471. Holotype: MVZ 45868, by original designation. Type locality: "1.3 miles west of Burnt Ranch Post Office, Trinity County, California", USA.

Rhyacotriton variegatusGood and Wake, 1992, Univ. California Publ. Zool., 126: 18.

English Names

California Mountain Salamander (Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 17).

Southern Olympic Salamander (Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 175; Stebbins, 1966, Field Guide W. North Am. Rept. Amph.: 37; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 9; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 34).

Southern Torrent Salamander (Good and Wake, 1992, Univ. California Publ. Zool., 126: 18; Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 9; Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 30; Stebbins, 2003, Field Guide W. Rept. Amph., Ed. 3: 162; Collins and Taggart, 2009, Standard Common Curr. Sci. Names N. Am. Amph. Turtles Rept. Crocodil., ed. 6: 15; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 31; Highton, Bonett, and Jockusch, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 33).

Distribution

Coast ranges from southern Mendocino County, California, north to the Little Nestucca River and the Grande Ronde Valley in Polk, Tillamook, and Yamhill counties, Oregon; western slope of the Cascade Mountains in the vicinity of Steamboat, Douglas County, Oregon, USA.

Geographic Occurrence

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

Endemic: United States of America

Comment

Highton, 2000, in Bruce et al., Biol. Plethodontid Salamanders: 228, suggested that four species masquerade under this name; this suggestion was argued against by Wake and Jockusch, 2000, in Bruce et al., Biol. Plethodontid Salamanders: 96. See discussion of phylogeography and range by Wagner, Miller, and Haig, 2006, Herpetologica, 62: 63–70, who provided additional evidence of multiple species. See account by Petranka, 1998, Salamand. U.S. Canada: 441–443. Welsh and Karraker, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 882–884, provided a detailed account that summarized the biology and conservation literature. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 225, provided a brief account, photograph, and map. Emel and Storfer, 2015, Conserv. Genetics, 16: 209–221, reported on landscape genetics. Altig and McDiarmid, 2015, Handb. Larval Amph. US and Canada: 131–132, provided an account of larval morphology and biology. Emel, Olson, Knowles, and Storfer, 2019, Conserv. Genetics, 20: 801–815, reported on landscape genetics with respect to conservation and forest management. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 494–496, provided an account, summarizing systematics, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map). 

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