Isthmura bellii (Gray, 1850)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Plethodontidae > Subfamily: Hemidactyliinae > Genus: Isthmura > Species: Isthmura bellii

Spelerpes bellii Gray, 1850, Cat. Spec. Amph. Coll. Brit. Mus., Batr. Grad.: 46. Holotype: BMNH 1946.9.6.23 (formerly 1850.I.III.9.9a), according to Brame and Gorham, 1972, Checklist Living & Fossil Salamand. World (Unpubl. MS): 289, and museum records. Type locality: "Mexico"; restricted to "Río Frío, 2 miles east of", Puebla, Mexico, by Smith and Taylor, 1950, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 33: 341.

Geotriton belliiCope, 1879, Proc. Am. Philos. Soc., 18: 263.

Oedipus belliiDunn, 1918, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 62: 471.

Bolitoglossa belliiTaylor, 1941, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 54: 77.

Pseudoeurycea belliiTaylor, 1944, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 30: 209.

Pseudoeurycea belli belliLowe, Jones, and Wright, 1968, Contrib. Sci. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 140: 4, 6.

Pseudoeurycea (Isthmura) belliiDubois and Raffaëlli, 2012, Alytes, 28: 77–161.

Isthmura bellii — Rovito, Parra-Olea, Recuero, and Wake, 2015, Zool. J. Linn. Soc., 175: 185. 

English Names

Bell's False Brook Salamander (Pseudoeurycea bellii: Liner, 1994, Herpetol. Circ., 23: 13; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 33).

Bell's Salamander (Liner and Casas-Andreu, 2008, Herpetol. Circ., 38: 32).

Bell's False Brook Salamander (Pseudoeurycea bellii bellii: Liner, 1994, Herpetol. Circ., 23: 13).

Bell's Salamander (Pseudoeurycea bellii bellii: Liner and Casas-Andreu, 2008, Herpetol. Circ., 38: 32).

Distribution

High elevation pine and pine-oak forest of southern Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala, Queretaro, Hidalgo and the Sierra Madre del Sur of Guerrero, Mexico, and west and north to southern Nayarit and southern Zacatecas, 750–3300 m elevation.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Mexico

Endemic: Mexico

Comment

In the Pseudoeurycea bellii group of Wake and Lynch, 1976, Sci. Bull. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 25: 61. Uribe-Peña, Ramírez-Bautista, and Casas-Andreu, 1999, Cuad. Inst. Biol., UNAM, 32: 24–25, provided an account and described the distribution. Parra-Olea, García-París, Papenfuss, and Wake, 2005, Herpetologica, 61: 145–158, discussed the systematics of the complex and redefined the species as composed of two widely allopatric and diagnosable subspecies: Pseudoeurycea bellii bellii (Mexican Tableland) and Pseudoeurycea bellii sierraoccidentalis of eastern Sonora and adjacent Madrean Chihuahua (now Isthmura sierraoccidentalis). Raffaëlli, 2007, Les Urodèles du Monde: 219–220, provided brief accounts by subspecies, photographs, and map, and considered it to be in the Pseudoeurycea bellii complex of the Pseudoeurycea bellii group. 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: 586. Lemos-Espinal and Dixon, 2013, Amphibians and Reptiles of San Luis Potosí: 27, provided an account for San Luis Potosí, Mexico. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 285–286, provided brief accounts by subspecies, photographs, and map. Quintero-Díaz, Sigala-Rodríguez, and Carbajal-Márquez, 2014, Herpetol. Rev., 45: 651, provided a range extension within southern Zacatecas, Mexico, and briefly characterized the range. Domínguez-Vega, Zuria, and Fernández-Badillo, 2018, Herpetol. Notes, 39: 239–244, reported the species in tropical scrub in Hidalgo, Mexico, and discussed the range. Bryson, Zarza, Grummer, Parra-Olea, Flores-Villela, Klicka, and McCormack, 2018, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 125: 75–84, provided a tree and discussed the phylogenomic diversification of the genus across the Mexican highlands. Quezada-Hipólito, Smith, Suazo-Ortuño, Alvarado-Díaz, González, Thammachoti, and Smart, 2019, Rev. Mexicana Biodiversidad, 90(e902448): 1–15, commented on the impact of vulcanism on biogeography. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 641–642, provided an account summarizing systematics, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map). Tepos-Ramírez, Garduño-Fonseca, Peralta-Robles, García-Rubio, and Cervantes Jiménez, 2023, Check List, 19: 269–292, discussed the distribution and conservation status of the species in Queretaro, Mexico.

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