Ambystoma californiense Gray, 1853

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Ambystomatidae > Genus: Ambystoma > Species: Ambystoma californiense

Ambystoma californiense Gray, 1853, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1853: 11. Type(s): BMNH. Type locality: "California, Monterey, in a well", USA. Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 23, considered Monterey as in error and corrected the type locality to "vicinity of San Francisco", California, USA, but provided no evidence for this change. 

Amblystoma californicum — Cooper, 1873, Proc. California Acad. Sci., 4: 64. Incorrect subsequent spelling. 

Ambystoma tigrinum californiense — Cope, 1889, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 34: 86; Dunn, 1940, Copeia, 1940: 157.

Ambystoma californiense — Dunn, 1918, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 62: 457; Storer, 1925, Univ. California Publ. Zool., 27: 60; Bishop, 1943, Handb. Salamanders: 119; Shaffer and McKnight, 1996, Evolution, 50: 417–433.

Ambystoma (Ambystoma) tigrinum californiense — Tihen, 1958, Bull. Florida State Mus., Biol. Sci., 3: 36.

Ambystoma (Heterotriton) californiense — Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2012, Alytes, 28: 77–161.

English Names

California Salamander (Cooper, 1873, Proc. California Acad. Sci., 4: 64). 

California Axolotl (Yarrow, 1882, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 24: 20).

California Tiger Salamander (Storer, 1925, Univ. California Publ. Zool., 27: 42; Bishop, 1943, Handb. Salamanders: 119; Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 23; Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 173; Stebbins, 1966, Field Guide W. North Am. Rept. Amph.: 34; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 4; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 27; 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: 18; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 13; Collins and Taggart, 2009, Standard Common Curr. Sci. Names N. Am. Amph. Turtles Rept. Crocodil., ed. 6: 10; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 23; Highton, Bonett, and Jockusch, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 22; Highton, Bonett, and Jockusch, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 22).

Distribution

Highly fragmented range in coastal California from the vicinity of Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, south to Lompoc area, Santa Barbara County, also in the Central Valley of California and adjacent foothills; in the Sierra from southern Sacramento County to northwestern Tulare County and in the innter Coast Range to the Temblor Range, California, USA.

Comment

Removed from the synonymy of Ambystoma tigrinum by Shaffer and McKnight, 1996, Evolution, 50: 417–433, where it had been placed most recently by Gehlbach, 1967, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 52: 1–4 (and earlier by Garman, 1884, Bull. Essex Inst., 16: 36). See discussion of the Ambystoma tigrinum complex by Collins, Mitton, and Pierce, 1980, Copeia, 1980: 938–941; Shaffer and McKnight, 1996, Evolution, 50: 417–433; and Irschick and Shaffer, 1997, Herpetologica, 53: 30–49. See detailed account by Petranka, 1998, Salamand. U.S. Canada: 47–50. Stebbins, 2003, Field Guide W. Rept. Amph., Ed. 3: 153–154, provided a brief account, figure, and map, and suggested that the Santa Barbara County population might constitute a distinct species. Raffaëlli, 2007, Les Urodèles du Monde: 80, also provided a brief account, map, and figure. See photograph, map, description of geographic range and habitat, and conservation status in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 544. Fitzpatrick, Johnson, Kump, Shaffer, Smith, and Voss, 2009, BMC Evol. Biol., 9 (176): 1–11, reported on hybridization with introduced Ambystoma mavortium. Johnson, Thomson, Micheletti, and Shaffer, 2011, Conserv. Genetics, 12: 355–370, reported on hybridization with introduced populations of Ambystoma mavortium (as Ambystoma tigrinum) throughout California, Oregon, and Washington, USA. Shaffer and Trenham, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 605–608, provided a detailed account. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 92–93, provided a brief account, photo, and map. Altig and McDiarmid, 2015, Handb. Larval Amph. US and Canada: 83–84, provided an account of larval morphology. Everson, Gray, Jones, Lawrence, Foley, Sovacool, Kratovil, Hotaling, Hime, Storfer, Parra-Olea, Percino-Daniel, Aguilar-Miguel, O'Neill, Zambrano, Shaffer, and Weisrock, 2021, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 18 (17: e2014719118): 1–10, included this species in their study of molecular evolution and evolution of life histories in the Ambystoma tigrinum complex. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 136–137, provided an account, summarizing systematics, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map). 

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