Pseudobranchus striatus (LeConte, 1824)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Sirenidae > Genus: Pseudobranchus > Species: Pseudobranchus striatus

Siren striata LeConte, 1824, Ann. Lyc. Nat. Hist. New York, 1: 53. Type(s): animal illustrated in pl. 4 and in the "Cabinet of the Lyceum"; not now known to exist. Type locality: Not stated, but inferred by Stejneger and Barbour, 1933, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 3: 24, to be "one of the Le Conte plantations in Floyd or Liberty County, Georgia", USA; restricted to "vicinity of Riceborough, Liberty County, Georgia", USA, by Harper, 1935, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 48: 280, with substantial comment. 

Pseudobranchus striatus — Gray, 1825, Ann. Philos., London, Ser. 2, 10: 216.

Pseudobranchus striatus striatus — Netting and Goin, 1942, Ann. Carnegie Mus., 29: 175–196.

Pseudobranchus striatus spheniscus Goin and Crenshaw, 1949, Ann. Carnegie Mus., 31: 277. Holotype: CM 29015, by original designation. Type locality: "Seven miles south of Smithville, Lee County, Georgia", USA.

Pseudobranchus striatus lustricolus Neill, 1951, Publ. Res. Div. Ross Allen’s Rept. Inst., 1: 39. Holotype: ERA-WTN 14214 (to have been deposted at UF), by original designation. Type locality: "7.8 miles southeast of Otter Creek, Levy County, Florida" USA.

Common Names

Striated Siren (Pseudobranchus striatus: Gray, 1831, in Cuvier, Animal Kingdom (Griffith), 9—Appendix: 108; Yarrow, 1882, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 24: 20).

Little Siren (Pseudobranchus striatus: Brimley, 1907, J. Elisha Mitchell Sci. Soc., 23: 150).

Striped Mud-Eel (Pseudobranchus striatus: Carr, 1940, Univ. Florida Biol. Sci. Ser., 3: 52).

Mud Siren (Pseudobranchus striatus: Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 16),

Dwarf Siren (Pseudobranchs striatus: 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: 36).

Northern Dwarf Siren (Pseudobranchus striatus: Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 9; Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 29; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 22; Collins and Taggart, 2009, Standard Common Curr. Sci. Names N. Am. Amph. Turtles Rept. Crocodil., ed. 6: 16; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 30; Highton, Bonett, and Jockusch, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 32).

Gulf Hammock Mud Siren (Pseudobranchus striatus lustricolus: Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 16; Conant, 1958, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. Cent. N. Am.: 205).

Gulf Hammock Dwarf Siren (Pseudobranchus striatus lustricolus: 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: 250; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 8; Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 9; Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 29; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 22; Collins and Taggart, 2009, Standard Common Curr. Sci. Names N. Am. Amph. Turtles Rept. Crocodil., ed. 6: 16; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 30; Highton, Bonett, and Jockusch, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 32).

Mud Siren (Pseudobranchus striatus striatus: Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 16).

Broad-striped Mud Siren (Pseudobranchus striatus striatus: Bishop, 1943, Handb. Salamanders: 468; Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 16).

Broad-striped Dwarf Siren (Pseudobranchus striatus striatus: 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: 250; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 8; Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 9; Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 29; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 22; Collins and Taggart, 2009, Standard Common Curr. Sci. Names N. Am. Amph. Turtles Rept. Crocodil., ed. 6: 16; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 30; Highton, Bonett, and Jockusch, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 32).

Slender Mud Siren (Pseudobranchus striatus spheniscus: Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 16),

Slender Dwarf Siren (Pseudobranchus striatus spheniscus: 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: 250; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 8; Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 9; Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 29; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 22; Collins and Taggart, 2009, Standard Common Curr. Sci. Names N. Am. Amph. Turtles Rept. Crocodil., ed. 6: 16; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 30; Highton, Bonett, and Jockusch, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 32).

Distribution

Coastal plain of South Carolina south through southern Georgia to central and western Florida, USA.

Geographic Occurrence

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

Endemic: United States of America

Comment

Reviewed by Martof, 1972, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 118: 2–4 (including Pseudobranchus axanthus as a subspecies). Moler and Kezer, 1993, Copeia, 1993: 39–47, discovered that Pseudobranchus axanthus and Pseudobranchus striatus are distinct species. Petranka, 1998, Salamand. U.S. Canada: 482–484, provided an account and expressed concerns about the level of understanding of the systematics of the nominal subspecies, particularly of Pseudobranchus striatus lustricolus, which may not be distinguishable from Pseudobranchus striatus spheniscus (which was implied by him in his map). Petranka (1998) mapped Pseudobranchus striatus spheniscus and Pseudobranchus striatus striatus as diagnosable and allopatric, which would suggest that they be treated as distinct species (DRF). Moler and Thomas, 1982, Herpetol. Rev., 13: 130, provided the westernmost record in Florida (Walton County). Moler, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 909–910, provided a detailed account that summarized the biology and conservation literature. Liu, Moler, and Miyamoto, 2006, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 39: 149–159, reported on phylogenetics and phylogeography. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 44–45, provided a brief account, photos, and map. Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 54–55, recognized the subspecies, but the lack of recent molecular studies (or even detailed morphological studies) leaves the subspecies problematic whether historical entities (i.e., species) or merely arbitrarily delimited parts of geographic variation. See comment under Pseudobranchus regarding the likelihood of unnamed species. Altig and McDiarmid, 2015, Handb. Larval Amph. US and Canada: 138–139, provided an account of larval morphology and biology. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 12-13, provided accounts by subspecies, summarizing systematics, morphology, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map).

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