Eurycea spelaea (Stejneger, 1892)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Plethodontidae > Subfamily: Hemidactyliinae > Genus: Eurycea > Species: Eurycea spelaea

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 spelaeusBonett and Chippindale, 2004, Mol. Ecol., 13: 1199. Gender disagreement.

Eurycea spelaeaFrost, 2004, Amph. Spec. World, vers. 3.0. Correction of gender agreement.

Eurycea (Eurycea) spelaeaRaffaëlli, 2007, Les Urodèles du Monde: 184-185.

Eurycea (Typhlotriton) spelaeaDubois and Raffaëlli, 2012, Alytes, 28: 144.

English 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 tynerensisRaffaëlli, 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. 

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