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Eurycea spelaea (Stejneger, 1892)
Typhlotriton spelaeus Stejneger, 1892, Proc. U.S. Natl. Mus., 15: 116. Holotype: USNM 17903, according to Cochran, 1961, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 220: 28. Type locality: "Rock House Cave, [Barry County,] Missouri", USA.
Eurycea spelaeus — Bonett and Chippindale, 2004, Mol. Ecol., 13: 1199. Gender disagreement.
Eurycea spelaea — Frost, 2004, Amph. Spec. World, vers. 3.0. Correction of gender agreement.
Eurycea (Eurycea) spelaea — Raffaëlli, 2007, Les Urodèles du Monde: 184-185.
Eurycea (Typhlotriton) spelaea — Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2012, Alytes, 28: 144.
Common Names
Veil-eyed Salamander (Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 44),
Grotto Salamander (Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 176; Conant, 1975, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. Cent. N. Am., Ed. 2: 296; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 9; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 34; Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 10; Collins and Taggart, 2009, Standard Common Curr. Sci. Names N. Am. Amph. Turtles Rept. Crocodil., ed. 6: 13; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 27; Powell, Conant, and Collins, 2016, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. North Am., 4th ed.: 58; Highton, Bonett, and Jockusch, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 28).
Ozarks Blind Salamander (Smith, 1934, Am. Midl. Nat., 15: 413).
Ozark Blind Salamander (Bishop, 1943, Handb. Salamanders: 351). x; Smith, 1934, Am. Midl. Nat., 15: 390).
Western Grotto Salamander (Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 541).
Distribution
Caves and springs in the Ozark region of extreme northwestern Arkansas, extreme southeastern Kansas, southwestern Missouri and northeastern Oklahoma, USA.
Geographic Occurrence
Natural Resident: United States of America, United States of America - Arkansas, United States of America - Kansas, United States of America - Missouri, United States of America - Oklahoma
Endemic: United States of America
Comment
Literature prior to 2017, treats the cryptic species Eurycea braggi and Eurycea nerea as synonyms of Eurycea spelaea. See accounts (as Typhlotriton speleus) by Brandon, 1965, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 20: 1–2; Brandon, 1970, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 84: 1; Petranka, 1998, Salamand. U.S. Canada: 307–309. Bonett and Chippindale, 2004, Mol. Ecol., 13: 1189–1203, addressed the phylogenetic relationships of this taxon with the remainder of the Eurycea multiplicata complex. Fenolio and Trauth, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 863–866, provided a detailed account that summarized the biology and conservation literature. Bonett, Steffen, Lambert, Wiens, and Chippindale, 2014 "2013", Evolution, 68: 473, provided a molecular tree that places this species as the sister taxon of Eurycea tynerensis. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 244, provided a brief account, photograph, and map. Altig and McDiarmid, 2015, Handb. Larval Amph. US and Canada: 117–118, provided an account of larval morphology and biology. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 541–543, provided an account, summarizing systematics, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map). Tighe, 2022, Smithson. Contrib. Zool., 654: 64, briefly discussed the location and status of paratypes.
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.
- For access to general information see Wikipedia
- For additional sources of general information from other websites search Google
- For access to relevant technical literature search Google Scholar
- For images search CalPhoto Images and Google Images
- 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