Plethodon websteri Highton, 1979

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

Plethodon websteri Highton, 1979, Brimleyana, 1: 32. Holotype: USNM 204814, by original designation. Type locality: "0.6 km east, 0.9 km south of Howelton, Etowah County, Alabama", USA.

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

English Names

Webster's Salamander (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 33; Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 9; Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 29; 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

Known from central Alabama and west-central Georgia; apparently disjunct populations occur in Clarke County (Alabama), Hinds and Winston counties (Mississippi), West Feliciana Parish (Louisiana), and McCormick County (South Carolina), USA.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: United States of America, United States of America - Alabama, United States of America - Georgia, United States of America - Louisiana, United States of America - Mississippi, United States of America - South Carolina

Endemic: United States of America

Comment

In the Plethodon welleri group of Highton and Larson, 1979, Syst. Zool., 28: 579–599. See accounts by Highton, 1986, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 384: 1–2, and Petranka, 1998, Salamand. U.S. Canada: 407–409. Forms a narrow hybrid zone with Plethodon dorsalis (Highton, 1985, J. Herpetol., 19: 544–546). Beamer and Lannoo, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 852–853, provided a detailed account that summarized the biology and conservation literature. Highton, Hastings, Palmer, Watts, Hass, Culver, and Arnold, 2012, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 63: 278–290, noted 12S mtDNA representative of the Plethodon glutinosus complex in Plethodon websteri, but that other genes and allozymes placed Plethodon websteri outside of the Plethodon glutinosus complex. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 393, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. Feist, Mann, Graham, Wooten, Toyota, Mann, Balius, Polanco, Wolwehender, and Moore, 2019, Conserv. Genetics, 20: 947–960, suggested on the basis of mtDNA analysis that the nominal species may be composed of two lineage-species and that Plethodon websteri is genetically distant from Plethodon welleri and not part of that group. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 393, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 903–904, provided an account summarizing systematics, morphology, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map).  

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.