Plethodon kentucki Mittleman, 1951

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

Plethodon kentucki Mittleman, 1951, Herpetologica, 7: 105. Holotype: USNM 129937 (formerly Cincinnati Nat. Hist. Soc. 1521A), by original designation. Type locality: "Pine Mountain, Harlan County, Kentucky, ca. 2000 feet [elevation]", USA.

Plethodon jordani kentuckiSchmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 37.

Plethodon kentuckiHighton and MacGregor, 1983, Herpetologica, 39: 189-200.

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

Common Names

Cumberland Plateau Woodland Salamander (Highton In Highton, Maha, and Maxson, 1989, Illinois Biol. Monogr., 57: 75).

Cumberland Plateau Salamander (Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 27; 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: 30; Highton, Bonett, and Jockusch, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 31).

Kentucky Salamander (Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 37; Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 175; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 33; Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 8).

Distribution

Cumberland Plateau of eastern Kentucky into extreme north-central Tennessee, southwestern West Virginia, and extreme western Virginia, USA.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: United States of America, United States of America - Kentucky, United States of America - Tennessee, United States of America - Virginia, United States of America - West Virginia

Endemic: United States of America

Comment

In the Plethodon glutinosus group of Highton and Larson, 1979, Syst. Zool., 28: 579–599. See Maha, Maxson, and Highton, 1984 "1983", J. Herpetol., 17: 398–400. See accounts by Highton, 1986, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 382: 1–2, and Petranka, 1998, Salamand. U.S. Canada: 374–377. Highton, 2000, in Bruce et al., Biol. Plethodontid Salamanders: 230, suggested that more than one species masquerades under this name. Pauley and Watson, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 818–819, provided a detailed account that summarized the biology and conservation literature. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 401, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. Kuchta, Brown, Converse, and Highton, 2016, PLoS One, 11(3: e0150022): 1–25, reported on molecular phylogeography, reporting strong mtDNA structure geographically, showing four clades suggested to represent species lineages, although these clades were not corroborated by their nuDNA evidence. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 924, provided an account summarizing systematics, morphology, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map). Watts, Waldron, Hantak, Lemmon, Lemmon, and Kuchta, 2024, Herpetologica, 80: 189–198, reported on phylogeographic patterns but regarded the four subpopulations as insufficiently distinct to treat as species. 

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