Batrachoseps Bonaparte, 1839

Common Names

Slender Salamanders (Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 173; 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; Stebbins, 2003, Field Guide W. Rept. Amph., Ed. 3: 182; Liner and Casas-Andreu, 2008, Herpetol. Circ., 38: 28; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 24; Highton, Bonett, and Jockusch, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 24).

Distribution

Oregon and California (USA) to northern Baja California (Mexico).

Comment

See Brame and Murray, 1968, Sci. Bull. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 4: 1–35, for key to most of the species. Jackman, Applebaum, and Wake, 1997, Mol. Biol. Evol., 14: 883–891, resurrected the name Plethopsis as a subgenus of Batrachoseps as part of their molecular study of bolitoglossine genera. Jockusch, Wake, and Yanev, 1998, Contrib. Sci. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 472: 1–17, recognized four new species groups within the subgenus Batrachoseps (Batrachoseps nigriventris group: Batrachoseps nigriventris, Batrachoseps simatus, Batrachoseps stebbinsi, Batrachoseps gregarius; Batrachoseps relictus group: Batrachoseps diabolicus, Batrachoseps kawia, Batrachoseps regius, Batrachoseps relictus; Batrachoseps attenuatus group: Batrachoseps attenuatus group: Batrachoseps attenuatus; Batrachoseps pacificus group: Batrachoseps pacificus, Batrachoseps aridus, and possibly Batrachoseps gabrieli). Jockusch, Yanev, and Wake, 2001, Herpetol. Monogr., 15: 54–99, discussed phylogenetics of the species in central coastal California, USA. Jockusch and Wake, 2002, Biol. J. Linn. Soc., 76: 361–391, discussed genetic diversification and phylogeny in the taxon, noted several unnamed species (one in Plethopsis). See species accounts for most species in Petranka, 1998, Salamand. U.S. Canada: 219–240. See also Wake and Jockusch, 2000, in Bruce et al., Biol. Plethodontid Salamanders: 99–116, for discussion of evolution within the genus. In the tribe Batrachosepini of Vieites, Nieto-Roman, Wake, and Wake, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 59: 633. Powell, Collins, and Hooper, 2011, Key Herpetofauna U.S. & Canada, 2nd Ed.: 17–20, provided a key to the species. Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 96, noted that the correct name for the Batrachoseps diabolicus group (as referred to by Jockusch, Martínez-Solano, Hansen, and Wake, 2012, Zootaxa, 3190: 1–30) should be referred to as the Batrachoseps relictus group. Jockusch, Hansen, Fisher, and Wake, 2020, PeerJ, 8 (e9599): 1–37, reported on molecular phylogenetics, noting at least one unnamed species from the vicinity Alright, Santa Barbara County, California, USA and a substantial number of mtDNA lineages that may also be species. 

Contained taxa (23 sp.):

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