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

Desmognathus amphileucus Bishop, 1941

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Plethodontidae > Subfamily: Plethodontinae > Genus: Desmognathus > Species: Desmognathus amphileucus

Desmognathus quadramaculatus amphileucus Bishop, 1941, Occas. Pap. Mus. Zool. Univ. Michigan, 451: 12. Holotype: UMMZ 89767, by original designation. Type locality: "Demorest, Habersham County, Georgia", USA. Subspecies status rejected by Pope, 1949, Nat. Hist. Misc., 44: 1–4. See also Neill, 1948, Copeia, 1948: 218, who redelimited the race.

Desmognathus quadramaculatus amphileucus — Bishop, 1943, Handb. Salamanders: 214.

Desmognathus amphileucus — Pyron and Beamer, 2022, Bionomina, 27: 14.

English Names

White-headed Salamander (Desmognathus quadramaculatus amphileucus: Bishop, 1943, Handb. Salamanders: 214).

Nantahala Black-bellied Salamander (Pyron and Beamer, 2022, Bionomina, 27: 17

Southern Black-bellied Salamander (Pyron and Beamer, 2022, Bionomina, 27: 17).

Southern Black-bellied Dusky Salamander (Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 1009).

Distribution

Blue Ridge of the Appalachian Mountains south of the Great Smoky Mountains and mostly west of the French Broad River (southwestern North Carolina, extreme western South Carolina, extreme southeastern Tennessee, and northeastern Georgia, USA).

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: United States of America, United States of America - Georgia, United States of America - North Carolina, United States of America - South Carolina, United States of America - Tennessee

Endemic: United States of America

Comment

As part of a major revision of black-bellied salamanders, removed from the synonymy of nominal Desmognathus quadramaculatus by Pyron and Beamer, 2022, Bionomina, 27: 14, on the basis of molecular, allozymic, and morphological evidence. This taxon is cvbn,./A of Pyron, O'Connell, Lemmon, Lemmon, and Beamer, 2020, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 146 (106751): 1–13, and Pyron, O'Connell, Lemmon, Lemmon, and Beamer, 2022, Ecol. Evol., 12 (2: e8574): 1–38. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 1009–1011, provided an account summarizing systematics, morphology, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map).

Under the pre-2022 taxonomy, one widespread nominal species, Desmognathus quadramaculatus was known to be a complex of species. Complicating this was the fact that the name Salamandra quadramaculata Green, 1818, was actually a synonym of Salamandra nigra Green, 1818 (Pyron and Beamer, 2020, Zootaxa, 4838: 226–228). This left a widespread complex of "Black-bellied Salamanders" largely without names (although excepting Desmognathus folkertsi, previously named). Subsequently Pyron and Beamer, 2022, Bionomina, 27: 1–43, remedied this situation with the naming/recognition of Desmognathus amphileucus (former Desmognathus 'quadramaculatus' A), Desmognathus gvnigeusgwotli (former Desmognathus 'quadramaculatus' F), Desmognathus mavrokoilius (former Desmognathus 'quadramaculatus' C, E, and G), and Desmognathus kanawha (former Desmognathus 'quadramaculatus' D). As a result, the literature of former Desmognathus 'quadramaculatus' is only to be used cautiously for any of the daughter species.

The former comment under Desmognathus 'quadramaculatus' follows: See detailed accounts by Valentine, 1974, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 153: 1–4, and Petranka, 1998, Salamand. U.S. Canada: 206–213. Rissler and Taylor, 2003, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 27: 197–211, presented molecular evidence that suggests that this nominal species is a composite of cryptic species, forming a paraphyletic series with respect to Desmognathus marmoratus. Beachy and Bruce, 2003, Amphibia-Reptilia, 24: 13-26, reported on a miniturized populations in the Bald Mountains of North Carolina, USA. Watson, Pauley, and Camp, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 723–726, provided an account containing a detailed summary of the literature and range. Jones, Voss, Ptacek, Weisrock, and Tonkyn, 2006, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 38: 280–287, and Wooten and Rissler, 2011, Acta Herpetol., Firenze, 6: 175–208, suggested that neither Desmognathus marmoratus nor Desmognathus quadramaculatus are monophyletic, instead being species complexes composed of multiple inter-related lineages. See comment under Desmognathus marmoratus for additional relevant literature. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 430, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. Altig and McDiarmid, 2015, Handb. Larval Amph. US and Canada: 106–107, provided an account of larval morphology. Beamer and Lamb, 2020, Zootaxa, 4734: 1–61, in their discussion of Desmognathus mtDNA phylogenetics, confirmed the intercalation of apparent cryptic species under this name with apparent cryptic species of Desmognatus marmorataus. Pyron, O'Connell, Lemmon, Lemmon, and Beamer, 2020, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 146 (106751): 1–13, suggested on molecular grounds that this nominal species is a complex. Pyron, O'Connell, Lemmon, Lemmon, and Beamer, 2022, Ecol. Evol., 12 (2: e8574): 1–38, provided molecular evidence that nominal Desmognathus quadramaculatus is composed of 4–7 lineages of which one, other than Desmognathus quadramaculatus, already has a name available.

External links:

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For additional sources of general information from other websites search Google
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To search the NIH genetic sequence database, see GenBank
For additional information see AmphibiaWeb report
For information on distribution, habitat, and conservation see the Map of Life
For related information on conservation and images as well as observation see iNaturalist
For access to available specimen data for this species, from over 350 scientific collections, go to Vertnet.