Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
Single word	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

Eurycea pterophila Burger, Smith, and Potter, 1950

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Plethodontidae > Subfamily: Hemidactyliinae > Genus: Eurycea > Species: Eurycea pterophila

Eurycea pterophila Burger, Smith, and Potter, 1950, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 63: 51. Holotype: FCP A993, by original designation; current location not known and presumed lost. Type locality: "The shallow stream flowing from Fern Bank Spring, 6.3 miles northeast of Wimberley on the Blanco River road, Hays County, Texas."

Eurycea neotenes pterophila — Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 56.

Eurycea (Paedomolge, Notiomolge, Blepsimolge) pterophila — Hillis, Chamberlain, Wilcox, and Chippindale, 2001, Herpetologica, 57: 275. See comment under Eurycea.

Eurycea (Blepsimolge) pterophila — Raffaëlli, 2007, Les Urodèles du Monde: 180; Devitt, Wright, Cannatella, and Hillis, 2019, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 116: 2624–2633.

Eurycea (Notiomolge) pterophila — Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2012, Alytes, 28: 144.

Eurycea (Typhlomolge) pterophila — Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 141.

English Names

Fern Bank Neotenic Salamander (Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 54).

Fern Bank Salamander (Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 174; Conant, 1975, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. Cent. N. Am., Ed. 2: 293; Collins and Taggart, 2009, Standard Common Curr. Sci. Names N. Am. Amph. Turtles Rept. Crocodil., ed. 6: 12; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 27; Powell, Conant, and Collins, 2016, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. North Am., 4th ed.: 61; Highton, Bonett, and Jockusch, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 28).

Distribution

Springs and caves of the Blanco River drainage in Blanco, Comal, Hays, and Kendall counties, Texas, USA.

Geographic Occurrence

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

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

Comment

Removed from the synonymy of Eurycea neotenes by Chippindale, 2000, in Bruce et al., Biol. Plethodontid Salamanders: 161, where it had been placed by Sweet, 1978, Herpetologica, 34: 101–107. See also account by Chippindale, Price, Wiens, and Hillis, 2000, Herpetol. Monogr., 14: 1–80. Chippindale, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 758, provided a detailed account that summarized the biology and conservation literature. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 240 provided a brief account, photograph, and map. Altig and McDiarmid, 2015, Handb. Larval Amph. US and Canada: 114–115, provided an account of larval morphology and biology. Devitt, Wright, Cannatella, and Hillis, 2019, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 116: 2624–2633, reported on the phylogenetic relationships and aquifer loyalty of this species. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 533, provided an account, summarizing systematics, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map).

External links:

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To search the NIH genetic sequence database, see GenBank
For additional information see AmphibiaWeb report
For information on conservation status and distribution see the IUCN Redlist
For information on distribution, habitat, and conservation see the Map of Life
For related information on conservation and images as well as observations see iNaturalist
For access to available specimen data for this species, from over 350 scientific collections, go to Vertnet.