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Amphibia    Caudata    Plethodontidae  
Bog Dwarf Salamander
Eurycea sphagnicola Wray, Means, and Steppan, 2017
yoor-EE-see-uh — sfag-nih-KOH-lah
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SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 New Species. Delimited from E. quadridigitata by Wray et al. (2017, Herpetological Monographs 31: 18–46). (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:; 113 Total; 93 Museum; 20 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: 2023.04.08.20.59.18)
Download map data (GeoJSON):
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Province/State Distribution:
United States: Alabama Florida Mississippi

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named for its moss-dwelling habitat.
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.
sphagnicola — Greek sphagnos = “sphagnum moss” + Latin -cola = “dweller”; “Moss-dweller”

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


Selected References:
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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