Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
Single word	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

Plethodontinae Gray, 1850

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Plethodontidae > Subfamily: Plethodontinae

123 species

Plethodontidae Gray, 1850, Cat. Spec. Amph. Coll. Brit. Mus., Batr. Grad.: 31. Type genus: Plethodon Tschudi, 1838.

Plethodontina — Gray, 1850, Cat. Spec. Amph. Coll. Brit. Mus., Batr. Grad.: 38.

Desmognathina Gray, 1850, Cat. Spec. Amph. Coll. Brit. Mus., Batr. Grad.: 40. Type genus: Desmognathus Baird, 1850. Synonymy with Plethodontinae by Chippindale, Bonett, Baldwin, and Wiens, 2004, Evolution, 58: 2809–2822.

Ensatinina Gray, 1850, Cat. Spec. Amph. Coll. Brit. Mus., Batr. Grad.: 48. Type genus: Ensatina Gray, 1850.

Plethodontae — Cope, 1859, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 11: 124. Implied tribe.

Desmognathidae — Cope, 1866, J. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Ser. 2, 6: 103. Type genus: Desmognathus Baird, 1850.

Plethodontinae — Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Grad. Batr. Apoda Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 1; Wolterstorff, 1901, Feuille Jeunes Nat., Ser. 4, 31: 77.

Desmognathinae — Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Grad. Batr. Apoda Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 1; Hay, 1892, Annu. Rep. Dept. Geol. Nat. Res. Indiana for 1891: 439.

Plethodontida — Knauer, 1878, Naturgesch. Lurche: 97.

Plethodontina — Schulze, 1891, Jahresber. Abhandl. Naturwiss. Ver. Magdeburg, 1890: 169.

Plethodontini — Wake, 1966, Mem. S. California Acad. Sci., 4: 51; Dubois, 2005, Alytes, 23: 20; Vieites, Nieto-Roman, Wake, and Wake, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 59: 633.

Desmognathini — Dubois, 2005, Alytes, 23: 20; Vieites, Nieto-Roman, Wake, and Wake, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 59: 633.

Aneidini Dubois, 2008, Zootaxa, 1771: 72. Nomen nudum.

Aneiditoi Dubois, 2008, Zootaxa, 1771: 72. Nomen nudum.

Aneidini Vieites, Nieto-Roman, Wake, and Wake, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 59: 633. Type genus: Aneides Baird, 1851. Nomen nudum.

Ensatinini — Vieites, Nieto-Roman, Wake, and Wake, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 59: 633. Type genus: Ensatina Gray, 1850.

Hydromantini Vieites, Nieto-Roman, Wake, and Wake, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 59: 633. Type genus: Hydromantes Gistel, 1843. Nomen nudum.

Aneidini Wake, 2012, Zootaxa, 3484: 75. Type genus: Aneides Baird, 1851.

Hydromantini Wake, 2012, Zootaxa, 3484: 80. Type genus: Hydromantes Gistel, 1843.

Aneidini Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2012, Alytes, 28: 117. Type genus: Aneides Baird, 1851. Junior synonym of Aneidini Wake, 2012, by Dubois, 2012, Zootaxa, 3563: 65.

Hydromantina Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2012, Alytes, 28: 115. Type genus: Hydromantes Gistel, 1843, by original designation. Synonymy with Hydromantini Wake, 2012, by Dubois, 2012, Zootaxa, 3563: 66.

Karseniini Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2012, Alytes, 28: 77–161. Type genus: Karsenia Min, Yang, Bonett, Vieites, Brandon, and Wake, 2005. Explicit tribe.

Karseniina — Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2012, Alytes, 28: 77–161. Explicit subtribe.

Desmognathina — Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 286.

Aneidinia — Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 286. Infratribe.

Desmognathinia — Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 286. Infratribe.

Ensatinina — Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 287. Subtribe.

Plethodontina — Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 287. Subtribe.

Common Names

None noted.

Distribution

USA and southern Canada; Mediterranean Europe; Korean Peninsula.

Comment

See nomenclatural comments on family-group names by Dubois, 1987 "1985", Alytes, 4: 155–156. See Plethodontidae record for access to relevant phylogenetic/taxonomic literature bearing on the recognition of this taxon. Titus and Larson, 1996, Syst. Biol., 45: 451–472, discussed phylogeny and character evolution within Desmognathus and Phaeognathus, as did Rissler and Taylor, 2003, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 27: 197–211. Sever, 1990, Trans. Am. Microscop. Soc., 109: 193–204, discussed cloacal anatomy. Vieites, Min, and Wake, 2007, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 104: 19903–19907, on the basis of nuDNA discussed the phylogenetics of this taxon. Wake, 2012, Zootaxa, 3484: 75–82, recognized a system of 5 tribes (Hydromantini [Hydromantes, Karsenia], Ensatinini [Ensatina], Aneidini [Aneides], Plethodontini [Plethodon] and Desmognathini [Phaeognathus and Desmognathus]) within the subfamily. The results of Pyron and Wiens, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 61: 551, cast some doubt on the association of Karsenia with Hydromantes, being found in that tree in a polytomy with Desmognathini and Aneidini. Dubois, 2005, Alytes, 23: 20, provided an alternative tribal taxonomy within Plethodontinae: Desmognathini (including Aneidini, Desmognathini, and Hydromantini of Wake, 2012) and Plethodontini (Plethodontini of Wake, 2012) that is also logically consistent with the currently received understanding of phylogeny.

Contained taxa (123 sp.):

Aneides Baird, 1851 (10 sp.)

Desmognathus Baird, 1850 (39 sp.)

Ensatina Gray, 1850 (1 sp.)

Hydromantes Gistel, 1848 (5 sp.)

Karsenia Min, Yang, Bonett, Vieites, Brandon, and Wake, 2005 (1 sp.)

Phaeognathus Highton, 1961 (1 sp.)

Plethodon Tschudi, 1838 (58 sp.)

Speleomantes Dubois, 1984 (8 sp.)

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