THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Amphibia    Caudata    Plethodontidae  

Western Red-backed Salamander
Plethodon vehiculum (Cooper, 1860)

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 There are no current SSAR comments for this taxon.

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2023.04.10.09.27.04)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 1.16 MB

Province/State Distribution:
Canada: British Columbia
USA: Oregon Washington

First instance(s) of published English names:
Vancouver Island Lizard (Plethodon intermedius: Yarrow, Henry C. 1882. Check list of North American Reptilia and Batrachia with catalogue of specimens in U. S. National Museum. Bulletin of the United States National Museum (24):1-249); Western Red-backed Salamander (Plethodon vehiculum: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.);

Taxon Links:

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

Selected References:
1860 Cooper, James G. No. 4. Report upon the reptiles collected on the survey. Pages 292-306 in Cooper, James G. and G. Suckley. Reports of explorations and surveys, to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. The natural history of Washington territory and Oregon : with much relating to Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Utah, and California between the thirty-sixth and forty-ninth parallels of latitude : being those parts of the final reports on the survey of the Northern Pacific Railroad route, relating to the natural history of the regions explored : with full catalogues and descriptions of the plants and animals collected from 1853 to 1860. Bailliáere Brothers, New York, New York. pp.
1956 Highton, Richard. The relationships of the salamanders of the genus Plethodon. Dissertation. University of Florida, Gainesville. 224pp.
1962 Highton, Richard. Revision of North American salamanders of the genus Plethodon. Bulletin of the Florida State Museum, Biological Sciences 6(3):235-267
1970 Storm, Robert M. and Brodie, Edmund D., Jr. Plethodon vehiculum. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (83):1-2
1978 Feder, J. H., G. Z. Wurst and D. B. Wake. Genetic variation in western salamanders of the genus Plethodon and the status of Plethodon gordoni. Herpetologica 34(1):64-69
1979 Highton, Richard and A. Larson. The genetic relationships of salamanders of the genus Plethodon. Systematic Zoology 28(4):579-599
1979 Maxson, Linda R., Richard Highton, and David B. Wake. Albumin evolution and its phylogenetic implications in the plethodontid salamander genera Plethodon and Ensatina. Copeia 1979(3):502-508
1991 Highton, Richard H. Molecular phylogeny of Plethodonine salamanders and Hylid frogs: Statistical analysis of protein comparisons. Molecular Biology and Evolution 8(6):796-818
1993 Arnold, Steven J., Nancy L. Reagan, and Paul A. Verrell. Reproductive isolation and speciation in plethodontid salamanders. Herpetologica 49(2):216-228
2006 Kozak, Kenneth H., David W. Weisrock, and Allan Larson. Rapid lineage accumulation in a non-adaptive radiation: Phylogenetic analysis of diversification rates in eastern North American woodland salamanders (Plethodontidae: Plethodon). Proceedings of the Royal Society B 2006(273):539-546
2010 Kozak, Kenneth H. and John J. Wiens. Accelerated rates of climatic-niche evolution underlie rapid species diversification. Ecology Letters 13:1378-1389
2011 Fisher-Reid, M. Caitlin and John J. Wiens. What are the consequences of combining nuclear and mitochondrial data for phylogenetic analysis? Lessons from Plethodon salamanders and 13 other vertebrate clades. BMC Evolutionary Biology 11:1-20

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Monday 21 April 2025 13:00 CT