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Amphibia    Caudata    Plethodontidae  
Samwel Shasta Salamander
Hydromantes samweli Bingham, Papenfuss, Lindstrand, and Wake, 2018
HY-droh-MAN-teez — SAM-well-eye
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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:
 New Species. Delimited from H. shastae by Bingham et al. (2018, Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 161: 403–427). (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.)

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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:; 335 Total; 215 Museum; 120 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: 2023.09.02.17.28.03)
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Province/State Distribution:
United States: California

Taxonomic Etymology:
amed for a local Indigenous tribe and region.
Hydromantes — From Greek hydro- (ὕδωρ), “water,” and mantēs (μάντης), “seer” or “diviner.” While the exact etymology is obscure, it likely evokes a poetic sense of “water spirit” or “creature of wet places,” appropriate for this lungless, moisture-dependent genus.
samweli — Named for the Samwel Band of Wintu Indians, a group whose ancestral lands include the area where the species occurs (near Shasta County, California). The name honors both cultural heritage and geographic origin.

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


Selected References:
1964 Gorman, Joe. Hydromantes.. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (10):1-2
1964 Gorman, Joe. Hydromantes brunus, H. platycephalus, and H. shastae.. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (11):1-2
1999 Nardi, Irma, Renata Batistoni, Silvia Marracci, and Benedetto Lanza. Repetitive DNA components of the large Hydromantes genome: Phylogenetic and molecular aspects. Herpetologica 55(2):131-139
2005 Wake, David B., Alfredo Salvador, and Miguel A. Alonso-Zarazaga. Taxonomy of the Plethodontid Salamander Genus Hydromantes (Caudata: Plethodontidae). Amphibia-Reptilia 26(4):543-548
2018 Bingham, R. E., T. J. Papenfuss, L. Lindstrand, III, and D. B. Wake. Phylogeography and species boundaries in the Hydromantes shastae complex, with description of two new species (Amphibia; Caudata; Plethodontidae). Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. Cambridge, Massachusetts 161(10):403–427

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