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

Plethodon dorsalis Cope, 1889

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

Plethodon cinereus dorsalis Cope, 1869, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 21: 100. Nomen nudum.

Plethodon erythronotus var. dorsalis Baird In Cope, 1869, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 21: 100. Nomen nudum.

Plethodon cinereus dorsalis Cope, 1889, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 34: 138. Syntypes: USNM 3776A–D; USNM 3776A designated lectotype by Highton, 1962, Bull. Florida State Mus., Biol. Sci., 6: 277. Type locality: "Louisville, [Jefferson County,] Kentucky", USA. Given in error as "Salem, Massachusetts (?), and Louisville, Kentucky", USA by Stejneger and Barbour, 1933, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 3: 11.

Plethodon dorsalis — Stejneger and Barbour, 1917, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept.: 15; Myers, 1927 "1926", Proc. Indiana Acad. Sci., 36: 337.

Plethodon cinereus dorsalis — Bishop, 1943, Handb. Salamanders: 236.

Plethodon dorsalis — Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 34.

Plethodon dorsalis dorsalis — Thurow, 1956, Herpetologica, 12: 179.

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

English Names

Ashy Lizard (Plethodon cinereus dorsalis: Yarrow, 1882, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 24: 21).

Zigzag Salamander (Plethodon dorsalis: Bishop, 1943, Handb. Salamanders: 236; Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 34; Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 175; Conant, 1975, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. Cent. N. Am., Ed. 2: 273; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 7; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 32; Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 8).

Eastern Zigzag Salamander (Plethodon dorsalis dorsalis [now coextensive with Plethodon dorsalis]: Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 8; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 32).

Northern Zigzag Salamander (Plethodon dorsalis: Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 26; Collins and Taggart, 2009, Standard Common Curr. Sci. Names N. Am. Amph. Turtles Rept. Crocodil., ed. 6: 14; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 29; Highton, Bonett, and Jockusch, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 31).

Distribution

Southern Indiana, eastern and southern Illinois, western Kentucky, central Tennessee, northern and western Alabama, and northeastern Mississippi, USA.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: United States of America, United States of America - Alabama, United States of America - Illinois, United States of America - Indiana, United States of America - Kentucky, United States of America - Mississippi, United States of America - Tennessee

Endemic: United States of America

Comment

In the Plethodon welleri group of Highton and Larson, 1979, Syst. Zool., 28: 579–599. See account (as including Plethodon angusticlavius) by Thurow, 1966, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 29: 1–3, and Petranka, 1998, Salamand. U.S. Canada: 346–349. Forms a narrow hybrid zone with Plethodon websteri (Highton, 1985, J. Herpetol., 19: 544–546). See comment under Plethodon ventralis. Highton, 1997, Herpetologica, 53: 350, noted that this species forms a hybrid zone with Plethodon ventralis in Lincoln County, Kentucky, USA. Meshaka, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 802–803, provided a detailed account that summarized the biology and conservation literature. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 392, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 899–900, provided an account summarizing morphology, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map).

External links:

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To search the NIH genetic sequence database, see GenBank
For additional information see AmphibiaWeb report
For information on conservation status and distribution see the IUCN Redlist
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.