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Amphibia    Caudata    Plethodontidae  

Dwarf Salamander
Eurycea quadridigitata (Holbrook, 1842)
yoor-EE-see-uh — kwah-drah-DIJ-ih-tah-tah

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

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Occurrences:; 4,650 Total; 4,153 Museum; 497 Other

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Province/State Distribution:
United States: Alabama Florida Georgia Louisiana Mississippi North Carolina South Carolina

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named for its toe count.
Eurycea — Rafinesque (1822) intentionally used a mythological-sounding name, but its specific Greek meaning or derivation was not disclosed. So, while modern etymologists may connect Eurycea to Eurydice or Greek roots (eurys “broad”), Rafinesque himself treated it as a classical name without a defined origin.
quadridigitata — Latin quattuor = “four” + digitus = “finger/toe”; “Four-toed,” referencing only four toes on the hind limbs.

First instance(s) of published English names:
Four-fingered Manculus (Manculus quadridigitatus: 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); Florida Manculus (Manculus remifer: 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); Four-fingered Salamander (Manculus quadridigitatus: Beyer, George. 1900. Louisana herpetology. Proceedings of the Louisiana Society of Naturalists 1897-1899():24-46); Dwarf Salamander (Manculus quadridigitatus: Brimley, Clement S. 1915. List of reptiles and amphibians of North Carolina. Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 30(4):195-206); Dwarf Salamander (Manculus quadridigitatus: Stejneger, Leonhard H. and Thomas Barbour. 1917. A Checklist of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. pp.); Dwarf Four-toed Salamander (Manculus quadridigitatus: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Coastal Plain Dwarf Salamander (Eurycea quadridigitata: Collins, Joseph T. and Travis W. Taggart. 2009. Standard Common and Current Scientific Names for North American Amphibians, Turtles, Reptiles, and Crocodilians. 6th ed. The Center for North American Herpetology, Lawrence, Kansas. 44pp.); Southeastern Dwarf Salamander (Eurycea quadridigitata: Wray, K. P., D. B. Means, and S. J. Steppan. 2017. Revision of the Eurycea quadridigitata (Holbrook 1842) complex of Dwarf Salamanders (Caudata: Plethodontidae: Hemidactyliinae) with a description of two new species. Herpetological Monographs 31(1):18–46);

Taxon Links:

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

Selected References:
1842 Holbrook, John E. North American Herpetology; or Description of the Reptiles Inhabiting the United States. Second Edition. Volume 5. J. Dobson, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 118pp.
1967 Mittleman, M. Budd. Manculus and M. quadridigitatus. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (44):1-2
1993 Arnold, Steven J., Nancy L. Reagan, and Paul A. Verrell. Reproductive isolation and speciation in plethodontid salamanders. Herpetologica 49(2):216-228
2010 Kozak, Kenneth H. and John J. Wiens. Accelerated rates of climatic-niche evolution underlie rapid species diversification. Ecology Letter 13:1378-1389
2012 Lamb, Trip and David A. Beamer. Digits lost or gained? Evidence for pedal evolution in the Dwarf Salamander Complex (Eurycea, Plethodontidae). PLoS One 7(5):1-9
2017 Wray, K. P., D. B. Means, and S. J. Steppan. Revision of the Eurycea quadridigitata (Holbrook 1842) complex of Dwarf Salamanders (Caudata: Plethodontidae: Hemidactyliinae) with a description of two new species. Herpetological Monographs 31(1):18–46

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