Pseudobranchus Gray, 1825

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Sirenidae > Genus: Pseudobranchus
2 species

Pseudobranchus Gray, 1825, Ann. Philos., London, Ser. 2, 10: 216. Type species: Siren striata LeConte, 1824, by monotypy.

Parvibranchus Hogg, 1839, Mag. Nat. Hist., N.S., 3: 270. Explicit substitute name for Pseudobranchus Gray, 1825. Synonymy by Gray, 1850, Cat. Spec. Amph. Coll. Brit. Mus., Batr. Grad.: 69.

English Names

Dwarf Sirens (Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 175; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 36; 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: 16; 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

South Carolina south to Florida, USA.

Comment

Reviewed by Martof, 1972, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 118: 1–2. See species account by Petranka, 1998, Salamand. U.S. Canada: 480–484. Liu, Moler, Whidden, and Miyamoto, 2004, Copeia, 2004: 136–144, reported on geographic variation in allozyme frequencies and reported syntopy of Pseudobranchus axanthus and Pseudobranchus striatus. Liu, Moler, and Miyamoto, 2006, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 39: 149–159, reported on phylogenetics and phylogeography. The data therein suggest that nominal Pseudobranchus striatus is composed of 3-5 lineages which form a paraphyletic series with respect to a group composed of at least 2 lineages of nominal Pseudobranchus axanthus. Given that this elements are geographically coherent, it appears reasonable to assume that multiple species are involved (DRF). Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 43–45, provided photos, maps, and brief accounts of the species. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 12–15, provided accounts of the species, summarizing systematics, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map).

Contained taxa (2 sp.):

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