THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Amphibia    Caudata    Plethodontidae  

Wandering Salamander
Aneides vagrans (Wake and Jackman, 1999)
AH-nee-des — VAY-granz

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 There are no current SSAR comments for this taxon.
Errata/Changes: Page 11: Authority/publication date should not be in parentheses. — (9/14/2025)

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2023.04.08.10.07.48)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.42 MB

Province/State Distribution:
Canada: British Columbia
United States: California

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named for its disjunct and wide-ranging populations.
Aneides — Greek an- = “not” + eidos = “form”
vagrans — Latin vagrans = “wandering” — reflects its distribution across both California and Vancouver Island.

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

Taxon Links:

  
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
  
Amphibian Species of the World
  
NatureServe
  
iNaturalist
  
GenBank
  
USGS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

Selected References:
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
1999 Wake, David B. and Todd R. Jackman. Appendix 1. Pages 1579-1580 in Molecular and historical evidence for the introduction of clouded salamanders (genus Aneides) to Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, from California. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 76: 1570-1580. pp.
1999 Jackman. Todd R. Molecular and historical evidence for the introduction of clouded salamanders (genus Aneides) to Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, from California. Canadian Journal of Zoology 76:1570–1580
2010 Kozak, Kenneth H. and John J. Wiens. Accelerated rates of climatic-niche evolution underlie rapid species diversification. Ecology Letters 13:1378-1389

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Friday 05 December 2025 15:58 CT