Plethodon ventralis Highton, 1997

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Plethodontidae > Subfamily: Plethodontinae > Genus: Plethodon > Species: Plethodon ventralis

Plethodon ventralis Highton, 1997, Herpetologica, 53: 351. Holotype: USNM 176841, by original designation. Type locality: "near the entrance to a cave on the trail from Schoolhouse Gap to White Oak Sinks (35° 38′ 20″ N 83° 44′ 52″ W), Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 549 m elevation, Blount County, Tennessee", USA.

Plethodon (Plethodon) ventralisVieites, Nieto-Roman, Wake, and Wake, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 59: 632, by implication.

English Names

Southern Zigzag Salamander (Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 29; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 21; Collins and Taggart, 2009, Standard Common Curr. Sci. Names N. Am. Amph. Turtles Rept. Crocodil., ed. 6: 14; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 30; Highton, Bonett, and Jockusch, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 32).

Distribution

Southeastern Kentucky, southwestern Virginia as far east as Hayters Gap in Washington County, eastern Tennessee, the French Broad River valley of western North Carolina, extreme northwestern Georgia, northern Alabama, and extreme northeastern Mississippi, USA.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: United States of America, United States of America - Alabama, United States of America - Georgia, United States of America - Kentucky, United States of America - Mississippi, United States of America - North Carolina, United States of America - Tennessee, United States of America - Virginia

Endemic: United States of America

Comment

Formerly confused with Plethodon dorsalis. See comment under Plethodon dorsalis. Beamer and Lannoo, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 849–850, provided a detailed account that summarized the biology and conservation literature. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 393, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 900–901, provided an account summarizing morphology, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map).  

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