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 vehiculum (Cooper, 1860)

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

Ambystoma vehiculum Cooper, 1860, Rep. Upon Explor Surv. Route Railroad Mississippi–Pacific Ocean, 12 (Book 2, Pt. 3, No. 4): viii. Type(s): Not stated, although holotype is clearly animal figured on pl. 31, fig. 4 in the original publication. Type locality: "Astoria, [Clatsop County,] Oregon", USA. See identificatory comment by Highton, 1962, Bull. Florida State Mus., Biol. Sci., 6: 265.

Plethodon intermedius Baird In Cope, 1868 "1867", Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 19: 209-210. Holotype: USNM 4732 according to Cope, 1889, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 34: 147; Cochran, 1961, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 220: 20, referred to USNM 4732a as a "co-type" (syntype in this context) although Tighe, 2022, Smithson. Contrib. Zool., 654: 47, did not agree with this. Type locality: "Fort Tejon, [Kern County,] Cal[ifornia]."; in error according to Van Denburgh, 1916, Proc. California Acad. Sci., Ser. 4, 6: 218. Synonymy by Bishop, 1934, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 47: 171.

Plethodon vehiculus — Bishop, 1934, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 47: 171.

Plethodon vehiculum — Slater, 1940, Occas. Pap. Dept. Biol. Puget Sound, 9: 43.

Plethodon (Hightonia) vehiculum — Vieites, Nieto-Roman, Wake, and Wake, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 59: 632.

English Names

Vancouver Island Lizard (Plethodon intermedius [no longer recognized]: Yarrow, 1882, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 24: 21).

Western Red-backed Salamander (Plethodon intermedius[no longer recognized]: Slevin, 1928, Occas. Pap. California Acad. Sci., 16: 43).

Western Red-backed Salamander (Plethodon vehiculum: Bishop, 1943, Handb. Salamanders: 278; Stebbins, 1951, Amph. W. North Am.: 84; Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 39; Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 175; Stebbins, 1966, Field Guide W. North Am. Rept. Amph.: 41; Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 29; Stebbins, 2003, Field Guide W. Rept. Amph., Ed. 3: 170; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 30; Highton, Bonett, and Jockusch, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 32).

Western Redback Salamander (Plethodon vehiculum: Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 8; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 33; Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 9; Collins and Taggart, 2009, Standard Common Curr. Sci. Names N. Am. Amph. Turtles Rept. Crocodil., ed. 6: 14).

Distribution

Chiefly west of Cascade Range crest from southwestern British Columbia (Canada), including Vancouver Island, to Coos County, near sea level to 1250 m elevation, Oregon (USA).

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Canada, United States of America, United States of America - Oregon, United States of America - Washington

Comment

In the Plethodon vehiculum group of Highton and Larson, 1979, Syst. Zool., 28: 579–599. See accounts by Storm and Brodie, 1971, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 103: 1–2, and Petranka, 1998, Salamand. U.S. Canada: 403–407. Stebbins, 2003, Field Guide W. Rept. Amph., Ed. 3: 170, provided a brief account, figure, and map. Bury, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 848–849, provided a detailed account that summarized the biology and conservation literature. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 407, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. Pelletier and Carstens, 2016, J. Biogeograph., 43: 2237–2249, reported on Pleistocene biogeography. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 938–939, provided an account summarizing systematics, morphology, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map). Tighe, 2022, Smithson. Contrib. Zool., 654: 47, briefly discussed current location and status of types of Plethodon intermedius.

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