Plethodon ainsworthi Lazell, 1998

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Plethodontidae > Subfamily: Plethodontinae > Genus: Plethodon > Species: Plethodon ainsworthi

Plethodon ainsworthi Lazell, 1998, Copeia, 1998: 967. Holotype: MCZ 125869, by original designation. Type locality: "2 miles south of Bay Springs, Jasper County, Mississippi", USA.

Plethodon (Plethodon) ainsworthiVieites, Nieto-Roman, Wake, and Wake, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 59: 632, by implication.

Common Names

Catahoula Salamander (Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 25).

Bay Springs Salamander (Lazell, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 787; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 20; 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: 29).

Distribution

Known only from the type locality (Jasper County, Mississippi, USA).

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: United States of America, United States of America - Mississippi

Endemic: United States of America, United States of America - Mississippi

Comment

Not obviously related to any other Plethodon according to the original publication. Lazell, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 787–788, provided a account that summarized the biology and conservation literature. Raffaëlli, 2007, Les Urodèles du Monde: 293, suggested that it is a member of the Plethodon glutinosus complex. See photograph, map, description of geographic range and habitat, and conservation status in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 144, who regarded the species as extinct. Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 192, suggested that it is a member of the Plethodon yonahlossee group, but provided no evidence for this conjecture. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 388, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. Highton, Bonett, and Jockusch, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 30, recognized Plethodon ainsworthi for undisclosed reasons. Tentatively removed from the synonymy of Plethodon mississippi by Pierson, Kieran, Clause, and Castleberry, 2020, J. Herpetol., 54: 137–143 (who considered it possibly extinct), where it had been placed by Himes and Beckett, 2013, Southeast. Nat., 12: 851. 

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