Desmognathus ochrophaeus Cope, 1859

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

Desmognathus ochrophaea Cope, 1859, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 11: 124. Type(s): Formerly ANSP, listed by Dunn, 1917, Proc. U.S. Natl. Mus., 53: 415, as destroyed. Type locality: "Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania", USA.

Plethodon ochrophaeusSmith, 1877, Tailed Amph.: 71.

Desmognathus ochrophaeusBoulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Grad. Batr. Apoda Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 77.

Desmognathus ochrophaea ochrophaeaDunn, 1917, Proc. U.S. Natl. Mus., 53: 415.

Desmognathus ochrophaeus ochrophaeusStejneger and Barbour, 1917, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept.: 22.

Desmognathus fuscus ochrophaeusDunn, 1926, Salamanders Fam. Plethodontidae: 114.

Desmognathus ochrophaeus ochrophaeusBishop, 1943, Handb. Salamanders: 199.

Desmognathus (Desmognathus) ochrophaeusDubois and Raffaëlli, 2012, Alytes, 28: 144. See comment under Desmognathus record regarding the status of this subgenus. 

Common Names

Triton (Yarrow, 1882, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 24: 22).

Yellow Desmognath (Jordan, 1878, Man. Vert. North. U.S., Ed. 2: 192).

Gray Salamander (Rhoads, 1895, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 47: 400).

Yellow Salamander (Brimley, 1907, J. Elisha Mitchell Sci. Soc., 23: 154).

Allegheny Mountains Salamander (Bishop, 1943, Handb. Salamanders: 199).

Allegheny Mountain Salamander (Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 30; Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 174).

Mountain Dusky Salamander (Conant, 1975, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. Cent. N. Am., Ed. 2: 266; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 5; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 31).

Allegheny Dusky Salamander (Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 6; Collins and Taggart, 2009, Standard Common Curr. Sci. Names N. Am. Amph. Turtles Rept. Crocodil., ed. 6: 12; Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 976).

Allegheny Mountain Dusky Salamander (Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 21; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 16; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 25; Powell, Conant, and Collins, 2016, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. North Am., 4th ed.: 48; Highton, Bonett, and Jockusch, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 26).

Distribution

Brumley, Clinch, Walker, and Potts mountains of southwestern Virginia, USA; the Cumberland Mountains and Plateau of southeastern Kentucky, USA; the Allegheny Mountains and Plateau of West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York, USA, through the Adirondack Mountains to southern Quebec, Canada.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Canada, United States of America, United States of America - Kentucky, United States of America - Maryland, United States of America - New Jersey, United States of America - New York, United States of America - North Carolina, United States of America - Ohio, United States of America - Pennsylvania, United States of America - Tennessee, United States of America - Vermont, United States of America - Virginia, United States of America - West Virginia

Comment

See detailed accounts by Tilley, 1973, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 129: 1–4 (written before the recognition of Desmognathus abditus, Desmognathus carolinensis, Desmognathus orestes, or Desmognathus ocoee), and Petranka, 1998, Salamand. U.S. Canada: 192–196 (before recognition of Desmognathus abditus).. Karlin and Guttman, 1981, Copeia, 1981: 371–377, reported on hybridization with Desmognathus fuscus in northeastern Ohio and northwestern Pennsylvania, USA. Lazell, 2009, Herpetol. Rev., 7: 122, provided a record for Vermont. Tilley and Mahoney, 1996, Herpetol. Monogr., 10: 25, noted that populations associated with this nominal species from Tennessee might represent a distinct species. Tilley, 1997, J. Heredity, 88: 305–315, discussed the small amount of genetic differentiation in this species. Populations from the Cumberland Plateau of Tennessee were transferred to Desmognathus abditus by Anderson and Tilley, 2003, Herpetol. Monogr., 17: 75–110. Pauley and Watson, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 716–719, provided an account containing a detailed summary of the literature and range. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 422, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. Altig and McDiarmid, 2015, Handb. Larval Amph. US and Canada: 105–106, provided an account of larval morphology. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 976–979, provided an account summarizing systematics, morphology, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map). 

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.