Ensatina Gray, 1850

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Plethodontidae > Subfamily: Plethodontinae > Genus: Ensatina
1 species

Ensatina Gray, 1850, Cat. Spec. Amph. Coll. Brit. Mus., Batr. Grad.: 48. Type species: Ensatina eschscholtzii Gray, 1850, by monotypy.

Heredia Girard, 1856, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 8: 140. Type species: Heredia oregonensis Girard, 1856, by monotypy. Synonymy (along with Ensatina) with Plethodon by Cope, 1868 "1867", Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 19: 167. Synonymy by Dunn, 1923, Proc. New England Zool. Club, 8: 39.

Urotropis Jiménez de la Espada, 1875, An. Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat., 4: 70. Type species: Urotropis platensis Jimenez de la Espada, 1875, by monotypy. Preoccupied by Urotropis Rafinesque, 1822 (= Cryptobranchus Leuckart, 1821). Synonymy by Dunn, 1926, Salamanders Fam. Plethodontidae: 181, and Myers and Carvalho, 1945, Bol. Mus. Nac., Rio de Janeiro, N.S., Zool., 35: 1–24.

English Names

Ensatinas (Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 174; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 6; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 31; Liner, 1994, Herpetol. Circ., 23: 12; 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: 22; Stebbins, 2003, Field Guide W. Rept. Amph., Ed. 3: 174; Liner and Casas-Andreu, 2008, Herpetol. Circ., 38: 31; 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: 26; Highton, Bonett, and Jockusch, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 26).

Distribution

Southwestern British Columbia and Vancouver I. (Canada), south through mesic western Washington, Oregon, and California (USA), to extreme northern Baja California, Mexico.

Comment

Considered the sister-taxon of Aneides + Plethodon by Larson, Wake, Maxson, and Highton, 1981, Evolution, 35: 405-422. Macey, 2005, Cladistics, 21: 194–202, considered Ensatina to be the sister taxon of Hydromantes. Vieites, Min, and Wake, 2007, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 104: 19903–19907, within a larger study of plethodontid relationships regarded Ensatina as the sister taxon of (Desmognathus + Phaeognathus) + AneidesRaffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 945–946, provided an account summarizing systematics (and noting the the philosophical divergence of various authors, from suggesting that the complex is composed of up to 13 species by some accountings while others preferring to posit a ring species composed of subspecies/semispecies), morphology, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map).

Contained taxa (1 sp.):

External links:

Please note: these links will take you to external websites not affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History. We are not responsible for their content.