THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY
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Amphibia    Caudata    Plethodontidae  
Shasta Black Salamander
Aneides iecanus (Cope, 1883)
AH-nee-des — eye-EE-kan-us
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Amphibian Species of the World
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
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USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 Populations along the inner margins of the Coast Ranges in western Tehama and Glenn Counties may be assignable to A. iecanus, but further surveys including morphological and genetic analyses are needed (Reilly and Wake, 2019, PeerJ, 7: e7370). (Pyron, R. Alexander, Christopher K. Beachy, David A. Beamer, and Kenneth M. Kozak. 2025. Caudata – Salamanders. Pages 10-21 in Kirsten E. Nicholson (Editor), Scientific and Standard English Names of Amphibians and Reptiles of North America North of Mexico, with Comments Regarding Confidence in Our Understanding, 9th Edition. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Lawrence, Kansas. 87 pp.)

(,   Museum Voucher) (,   Observation) (,   Literature Record), (,   Citizen Science), (  Fossil)
Open icons indicate questionable records, including those with coordinate uncertainty greater than 10,000 m (approximately 6 miles). Click a marker to view metadata.
Occurrences:; 66 Total; 5 Museum; 61 Other

The locality database contains 8,094,832 records, and geographic and taxonomic errors exist. Logged-in, registered users may report a potential issue directly from the marker popup.
Shaded range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH. (Version: 2023.09.02.15.26.39)
Download map data (GeoJSON):
Polygon Range File Museum Literature Fossil Personal Observation Citizen Science

Province/State Distribution:
United States: California

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named for the region around Mount Shasta.
Aneides — Greek an- = “not” + eidos = “form”
iecanus — From Ieka, an old name for Mount Shasta from local Indigenous languages — Latinized as iecanus = “of Ieka.”

First instance(s) of published English names:
No historic English names have been assigned to this taxon yet.


Selected References:
1883 Cope, Edward D. Notes on the geographical distribution of Batrachia and Reptilia in western North America. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 35:10-35
1950 Lowe, Charles H., Jr. The systematic status of the salamander Plethodon hardii, with a discussion of biogeographical problems in Aneides. Copeia 1950:92-99
1974 Wake, David B. Aneides.. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (157):1-2
2010 Kozak, Kenneth H. and John J. Wiens. Accelerated rates of climatic-niche evolution underlie rapid species diversification. Ecology Letter 13:1378-1389
2019 Reilly, Sean B. and David B. Wake. Taxonomic revision of black salamanders of the Aneides flavipunctatus complex (Caudata: Plethodontidae). PeerJ 7(7370):1–36.
2026 Glosli, Cort, Andre Giraldi, Pedro Peloso, Silvia Pavan, and Karen Kiemnec-Tyburczy. Range extension and species assignment of a rediscovered population of the Black Salamander complex (genus Aneides) in California, USA, based on morphological and molecular evidence. Herpetology Notes 19:289–300

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