Aneides flavipunctatus (Strauch, 1870)

English Names

Black Salamander (Aneides flavipunctatus in the sense of including Aneides niger and Aneides iecanus: Storer, 1925, Univ. California Publ. Zool., 27: 43; Slevin, 1928, Occas. Pap. California Acad. Sci., 16: 66; Bishop, 1943, Handb. Salamanders: 336; Stebbins, 1951, Amph. W. North Am.: 131; Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 50; Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 173; Stebbins, 1966, Field Guide W. North Am. Rept. Amph.: 49; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 5; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 29; Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 5; Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 19; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 24; Highton, Bonett, and Jockusch, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 23).

Yellow-spotted Lizard (Aneides flavipunctatus: Yarrow, 1882, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 24: 21).

Speckled Black Salamander (Aneides flavipunctatus flavipunctatus: Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 173; Stebbins, 1966, Field Guide W. North Am. Rept. Amph.: 49; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 5; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 29; Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 5; Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 19; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 24; Aneides flavipunctatus: Collins and Taggart, 2009, Standard Common Curr. Sci. Names N. Am. Amph. Turtles Rept. Crocodil., ed. 6: 11; Highton, Bonett, and Jockusch, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 23).

Distribution

Southern Humboldt and southeastern Trinities counties south through Mendocino, Lake, western Colusa and Yolo counties to southwestern Sonoma and northern Napa counties, California, USA. Population in Glenn County, California, may be of this species but its identity remains problematic. 

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: United States of America, United States of America - California

Endemic: United States of America, United States of America - California

Comment

Literature prior to the revision of Reilly and Wake, 2019, PeerJ, 7(e:7370): 1–36, needs to be employed with caution given that prior to that publication most (but not all) authors considered Aneides iecanus, Aneides klamathensis, and Aneides niger to all be parts of a polytypic Aneides flavipunctatus. Larson, 1980, Evolution, 34: 1–17, discussed genetic variation. See accounts by Lynch, 1974, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 158: 1–22, Lynch, 1981, Smithson. Contrib. Zool., 324: 1–53 (who recognized subspecies), and Petranka, 1998, Salamand. U.S. Canada: 318–320, and Staub and Wake, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 660–661 (all in the sense of including Aneides niger and Aneides iecanus). Highton, 2000, in Bruce et al., Biol. Plethodontid Salamanders: 231, suggested that three species masquerade under this name and Petranka, 1998, Salamand. U.S. Canada: 318–320, did not recognize subspecies, although Highton, Tilley, and Wake In Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 19, did, presumably because of the likelihood of cryptic species within the complex. Stebbins, 2003, Field Guide W. Rept. Amph., Ed. 3: 178–179, provided a brief account, figure, and map. See statement of geographic range, habitat, and conservation status in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 637. Rissler and Apodaca, 2007, Syst. Biol., 56: 924–942, reported on a study of ecological, molecular, and morphological variation that detected four cryptic (and not-so-cryptic) lineages within nominal Aneides flavipunctatus. Of the four to five lineages, three were assigned available names in this catalogue (DRF) and these authors suggested that they be considered species: Plethodon flavipunctatus Strauch, 1870, is available for their Central lineage; Aneides flavipunctatus niger Myers and Maslin, 1948, is available for the Southern Disjunct lineage, and Aneides iecanus Cope, 1883, is available for their Shasta lineage. Reilly, Marks, and Jennings, 2012, Mol. Ecol., 21: 5745–5761, expanded on this problem and largely concurred with Rissler and Apodaca (2007), except noting that the "Central lineage" is a composite of at least two genetic lineages. Reilly, Mulks, Reilly, Jennings, and Wake, 2013, Diversity, 5: 657–679, refined the geographic delimitation of the lineages but did not address the taxonomic issue and for unexplained reasons retained Aneides iecanus and Aneides niger within Aneides flavipunctatus even though their evidence supports and extends the conclusions of Rissler and Apodoca (2007) that nominal Aneides flavipunctatus is a complex of species. Reilly and Wake, 2015, J. Biogeograph., 42: 280–291, documented that Aneides flavipunctatus (in their sense including Aneides iecanus and Aneides niger) is a complex of at least four species, but did not remedy the taxonomy. Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 155, did not recognize Aneides iecanus and Aneides niger as distinct from Aneides flavipunctatus due to the lack by Rissler and Apodaca (2007) of a formal statement of associating names with the species delimited by the various works. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 410–411, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map in the sense of Aneides flavipunctatus sensu stricto except treating part of the "Central Lineage" as an unnamed subspecies. He (p. 411) also treated the unnamed northwest lineage in a brief account and mapped the entire complex. Highton, Bonett, and Jockusch, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 23, summarized the published taxonomic history of the Aneides flavipunctatus group, but not recognize Aneides iecanus and Aneides niger as species. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 956–958, provided an account summarizing morphology, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map). 

External links:

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• For access to general information see Wikipedia
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• To search the NIH genetic sequence database, see GenBank
• For additional information see AmphibiaWeb report
• For information on conservation status and distribution see the IUCN Redlist
• For information on distribution, habitat, and conservation see the Map of Life
• For related information on conservation and images as well as observations see iNaturalist
• For access to available specimen data for this species, from over 350 scientific collections, go to Vertnet.