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 metcalfi Brimley, 1912

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

Plethodon metcalfi Brimley, 1912, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 25: 138. Holotype: USNM 49682 according to Cochran, 1961, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 220: 21. Type locality: "near Sunburst, Haywood Co[unty]., N[orth]. C[arolina]., . . . at elevations of about 3500 to 4000 feet", USA.

Plethodon clemsonae Brimley, 1927, Copeia, 164: 73. Holotype: USNM 73849, by original designation. Type locality: "Jocassee, [Oconee County,] S[outh]. C[arolina]., . . . at an elevation of 1200 to 1500 feet". Synonymy (implicit) by Stejneger and Barbour, 1939, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 4: 14, who did not mention it; revalidated as distinct from Plethodon metcalfi by Bishop, 1941, Occas. Pap. Mus. Zool. Univ. Michigan, 451: 20.

Plethodon shermani rabunensis Pope and Hairston, 1948, Copeia, 1948: 106. Holotype: FMNH 47697, by original designation. Type locality: "Rabun Bald Mountain, Rabun County, Georgia, collected between 4,200 and 4,600 feet above sea level". Synonymy with Plethodon metcalfi clemsonae by Mittleman, 1948, J. Washington Acad. Sci., 38: 417. Synonymy by Highton and Peabody, 2000, in Bruce et al., Biol. Plethodontid Salamanders: 59.

Plethodon shermani melaventris Pope and Hairston, 1948, Copeia, 1948: 107. Holotype: FMNH 47614, by original designation. Type locality: "Highlands, Macon County, North Carolina", USA. Synonymy with Plethodon metcalfi clemsonae by Mittleman, 1948, J. Washington Acad. Sci., 38: 417.

Plethodon metcalfi metcalfi — Mittleman, 1948, J. Washington Acad. Sci., 38: 418.

Plethodon metcalfi clemsonae — Mittleman, 1948, J. Washington Acad. Sci., 38: 418.

Plethodon shermani clemsonae — Hairston and Pope, 1948, Evolution, 2: 274.

Plethodon jordani metcalfi — Hairston, 1950, Copeia, 1950: 271.

Plethodon jordani clemsonae — Hairston, 1950, Copeia, 1950: 272.

Plethodon jordani rabunensis — Hairston, 1950, Copeia, 1950: 272.

Plethodon jordani melaventris — Hairston, 1950, Copeia, 1950: 272.

Plethodon metcalfi — Highton and Peabody, 2000, in Bruce et al., Biol. Plethodontid Salamanders: 59.

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

Common Names

Unspotted Salamander (Plethodon metcalfi: Brimley, 1915, J. Elisha Mitchell Sci. Soc., 30: 5).

Metcalf's Salamander (Plethodon jordani metcalfi: Bishop, 1943, Handb. Salamanders: 261; Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 35-36; Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 175).

Clemson's Salamander (Plethodon jordani clemsonae [no longer recognized]: Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 35-36).

Clemson Salamander (Plethodon jordani clemsonae [no longer recognized]: Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 175).

Highland's Salamander (Plethodon jordani melaventris [no longer recognized]: Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 35-36).

Highlands Salamander (Plethodon jordani melaventris [no longer recognized]: Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 175).

Rabun Bald Salamander (Plethodon jordani rabunensis [no longer recognized]: Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 35-36).

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

Frosted Salamander (Plethodon clemsonae: Bishop, 1943, Handb. Salamanders: 239).

Southern Gray-cheeked Salamander (Plethodon metcalfi: Highton and Peabody, 2000, in Bruce et al., Biol. Plethodontid Salamanders: 59; Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 27; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 21; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 30; Powell, Conant, and Collins, 2016, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. North Am., 4th ed.: 75; Highton, Bonett, and Jockusch, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 31).

Southern Graycheek Salamander (Plethodon metcalfi: Collins and Taggart, 2009, Standard Common Curr. Sci. Names N. Am. Amph. Turtles Rept. Crocodil., ed. 6: 14).

Distribution

Southwestern corner of North Carolina extreme northwestern South Carolina, and peripherally into extreme northeastern adjacent Georgia, USA, above 256 m elevation.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: United States of America, United States of America - Georgia, United States of America - North Carolina, United States of America - South Carolina

Endemic: United States of America

Comment

In the Plethodon glutinosus group, Plethodon jordani complex. Resurrected from the synonymy of Plethodon jordani by Highton and Peabody, 2000, in Bruce et al., Biol. Plethodontid Salamanders: 59, where it had been placed by Hairston, 1950, Copeia, 1950: 271. Beamer and Lannoo, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 823–825, provided a detailed account that summarized the biology and conservation literature. Weisrock and Larson, 2006, Biol. J. Linn. Soc., 89: 25-51, discussed the phylogenetic status of this species. Moskwik, 2014, J. Biogeograph., 41: 1957–1966, documented in this species significant elevational range changes since the 1940s. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 402, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 926, provided an account summarizing systematics, morphology, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map). Tighe, 2022, Smithson. Contrib. Zool., 654: 44, briefly discussed the current location of paratypes of Plethodon clemsonae and (p. 48) of Plethodon metcalfi.

External links:

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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 observations see iNaturalist
For access to available specimen data for this species, from over 350 scientific collections, go to Vertnet.