Plethodon jacksoni Newman, 1954

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

Plethodon jacksoni Newman, 1954, Herpetologica, 10: 9. Holotype: USNM 134498, by original designation. Type locality: "Trillium Vale, elevation 2,100 feet, approximately one mile east of Blacksburg, Montgomery County, Virginia", USA. 

Plethodon wehrlei jacksoni — Cochran, 1961, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 220: 20.

Plethodon jacksoni — Felix, Wooten, Pierson, and Camp, 2019, Zootaxa, 4609: 439

Common Names

Blacksburg Salamander (Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 175). 

Distribution

Southwestern Virginia (Blacksburg County) and adjacent northwestern North Carolina, USA. See comment. 

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: United States of America, United States of America - North Carolina, United States of America - Virginia

Endemic: United States of America

Comment

 Kuchta, Brown, and Highton, 2018, Zool. Scripta, 47: 285–299, noted this clade as composed of a set of populations, "southern wehrlei" and tentatively "population 29", but pending additional work refrained from recognizing the species. Removed formally from the synonymy of Plethodon wehrlei by Felix, Wooten, Pierson, and Camp, 2019, Zootaxa, 4609: 439, where it had been placed by Cochran, 1961, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 220: 20, and Highton, 1962, Bull. Florida State Mus., Biol. Sci., 6: 318. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 907–908, provided an account summarizing systematics, morphology, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map). Tighe, 2022, Smithson. Contrib. Zool., 654: 47–48, briefly discussed current location of paratypes. Kuchta, Waldron, Watts, Lemmon, and Lemmon, 2024, Herpetologica, 80: 165–176. suggested that substantially more dense geographic sampling is required to firmly elucidate the status of this nominal species and others in the Plethodon wehrlei group. 

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