Desmognathus Baird, 1850

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Plethodontidae > Subfamily: Plethodontinae > Genus: Desmognathus
39 species

Desmognathus Baird, 1850 "1849", J. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Ser. 2, 1: 282. Type species: Triturus fuscus Rafinesque, 1820, by the subsequent designation of Brown, 1908, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 60: 126. Placed on the Official List of Generic Names by Opinion 92, Anonymous, 1926, Smithson. Misc. Collect., 73: 3.

Leurognathus Moore, 1899, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 51: 316. Type species: Leurognathus marmorata Moore, 1899, by monotypy. Synonymy by Bernardo, 1994, Am. Nat., 143: 15; Titus and Larson, 1996, Syst. Biol., 45: 451–472. Treatment as a subgenus by Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2012, Alytes, 28: 145.

Geognathus Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2012, Alytes, 28: 145. Type species: Desmognathus wrighti King, 1936, by original designation. Coined as a subgenus of Desmognathus, but which renders the nominal subgenus paraphyletic. 

Hydrognathus Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2012, Alytes, 28: 145. Type species: Desmognathus brimleyorum Stejneger, 1895, by original designation. Coined as a subgenus of Desmognathus, but which renders the nominal subgenus paraphyletic.

Nomina inquirenda - Name(s) unassigned to a living or extinct population

Salamandra nigra Green, 1818, J. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1: 352. Holotype: Not stated or known to exist, although Harlan, 1827, J. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 5: 332, noted specimens in the ANSP and Baird, 1850 "1849", J. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Ser. 2, 1: 285, suggested that the one ANSP specimen he examined might be the type. Type locality: Not stated, though presumably from region of Princeton, New Jersey, USA; given as "Pennsylvania", USA, by Harlan, 1827, J. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 5: 332. Restricted to "probably vicinity of Princeton, New Jersey", USA by Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 29. Synonymy by Hallowell, 1856, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 8: 7. Considered to be a nomen dubium by Highton Tilley, and Wake in Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Green, Highton, Iverson, McDiarmid, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Tilley, and Wake, 2003, Herpetol. Rev., 34: 197, which cannot confidently be allocated to a particular taxon. * Triton niger — Holbrook, 1842, N. Am. Herpetol., Ed. 2, 5: 81. Considered by Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 179, to be a new name, homonymous with Salamandra nigra Green, 1818, although Holbrook makes it explicitly clear that this is a subsequent use of that name. Based on specimens of Desmognathus fuscus according to Dunn, 1926, Salamanders Fam. Plethodontidae: 64. * Desmognathus niger — Baird, 1850 "1849", J. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Ser. 2, 1: 285; Hallowell, 1856, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 8: 11. * Ambystoma nigrum — Duméril, Bibron, and Duméril, 1854, Erp. Gen., 9: 105. * Plethodon niger — Hallowell, 1856, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 8: 101. * Ambistoma nigrum — Jan, 1857, Cenni Mus. Civ. Milano: 55. Incorrect subsequent spelling. * Desmognathus nigra — Cope, 1869, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 21: 113. * Desmognathus niger — Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Grad. Batr. Apoda Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 79.

English Names

Dusky Salamanders (Jordan, 1878, Man. Vert. North. U.S., Ed. 2: 192; Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 174; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 5; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 31; Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 6; Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 20; 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.: 39; Highton, Bonett, and Jockusch, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 25).

Distribution

Eastern USA and southeastern Canada, west to eastern Oklahoma and Texas.

Comment

See accounts for all species in Petranka, 1998, Salamand. U.S. Canada: 159–216. Anderson and Tilley, 2003, Herpetol. Monogr., 17: 75–110, discussed the systematics of the Desmognathus ochrophaeus complex in central Tennessee. Macey, 2005, Cladistics, 21: 194–202, considered Desmognathus to be the sister taxon of Phaeognathus. Beamer and Lamb, 2008, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 47: 143–153, reported on the molecular phylonetics of the coastal plains group and cryptic species diversity. In the tribe Desmognathini of Vieites, Nieto-Roman, Wake, and Wake, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 59: 633. Powell, Collins, and Hooper, 2011, Key Herpetofauna U.S. & Canada, 2nd Ed.: 20–23, provided a key to the species. Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2012, Alytes, 28: 77–161, provided a subgeneric taxonomy that is misleading about evolutionary history, with a paraphyletic subgenus Desmognathus basal to a polyphyletic Geognathus, and a monophyletic HydrognathusRaffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 419–435, provided brief accounts, photographs, and range maps for the species. Altig and McDiarmid, 2015, Handb. Larval Amph. US and Canada, provided an account of larval morphology of the species. Camp and Wooten, 2016, Copeia, 2016: 111–117, briefly discussed modes of diversification in the Desmognathus quadramaculatus complex. Tilley, 2016, Copeia, 2016: 8–20, discussed patterns of diversification in Desmognathus. Beamer and Lamb, 2020, Zootaxa, 4734: 1–61, reported on the molecular phylogenetics of the species within the genus, noting many cryptic species. Pyron, O'Connell, Lemmon, Lemmon, and Beamer, 2020, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 146 (106751): 1–13, reported on the molecular phylogenetics of the taxon, noting a number of unnamed species and several cases of mitochondrial migration among lineages. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 970–1015, provided species accounts summarizing systematics, morphology, life history, population status, and distribution (including polygon maps). Pyron and Beamer, 2023, Zootaxa, 5311: 451–504, revised the Desmognathus conanti and Desmognathus fuscus complexes, resulting in the naming of six new species (Desmognathus anicetus, Desmognathus bairdi, Desmognathus campi, Desmognathus catahoula, Desmognathus lycos, and Desmognathus tilleyi). 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).  

Contained taxa (39 sp.):

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