THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY


Amphibia    Caudata    Plethodontidae  

Eastern Red-backed Salamander
Plethodon cinereus (Green, 1818)
pleth-OH-don — sin-ehr-EE-us

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: 2023.04.10.09.27.05)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.85 MB

First instance(s) of published English names:
Dapple Salamander (Salamandra cinerea: Green, Jacob. 1818. Descriptions of several species of North American Amphibia, accompanied with observations. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 1():348-359); Red-backed Salamander (Salamandra erythronota: Green, Jacob. 1818. Descriptions of several species of North American Amphibia, accompanied with observations. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 1():348-359); Ashy Salamander (Salamandra cinerea: Gray, John E. 1830. A synopsis of the species of the class reptilia. Pages 1-110 in The Animal Kingdom Arranged in Conformity with its Organization by the Baron Cuvier, member of teh Institute of France, with Additional Descriptions of all the Species Hitherto Named, and of many not before noticed. Ninth Volume. Whittaker, Treacher, and Company, London, England. pp.); Red Backed Salamander (Salamandra erythronota: Gray, John E. 1830. A synopsis of the species of the class reptilia. Pages 1-110 in The Animal Kingdom Arranged in Conformity with its Organization by the Baron Cuvier, member of teh Institute of France, with Additional Descriptions of all the Species Hitherto Named, and of many not before noticed. Ninth Volume. Whittaker, Treacher, and Company, London, England. pp.); Red-backed Salamander (Plethodon erythronotus: Hallowell, Edward. 1858. On the caducibranchiate uurodele batrachians. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Series 2 3():337-366); Red-backed Salamander (Plethodon erythronotus: Jordan, David Starr. 1876. Manual of the Vertebrates of the Northern United States: Including the District East of the Mississippi River, and North of North Carolina and Tennessee, Exclusive of Marine Species. Jansen, McClurg, and Company, Chicago, Illinois.. 342pp.); Ashy Lizard (Plethodon cinereus cinereus: 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); Chestnut-backed Lizard (Plethodon cinereus erythronotus: 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); Red-backed Salamander (Plethodon cinereus cinereus: Davis, N. S., and Frank L. Rice. 1883. List of Batrachia and Reptilia of Illinois. Bulletin of the Chicago Academy of Sciences 1(3):25–32); Ashy Salamander (Plethodon cinereus: Hay, Oliver P. 1892. Batrachians and Reptiles of the State of Indiana. Pages 409-624 in 17th Annual Report of the Indiana Department of Geology and Natural Resources, William B. Burford, Printer and Binder, Indianapolis, Indiana. pp.); Red-backed Salamander (Plethodon cinereus: Hay, Oliver P. 1892. Batrachians and Reptiles of the State of Indiana. Pages 409-624 in 17th Annual Report of the Indiana Department of Geology and Natural Resources, William B. Burford, Printer and Binder, Indianapolis, Indiana. pp.); Brown Salamander (Plethodon cinereus cinereus: Brown, Arthur, E. 1902. Report of the Board of Directors. Pages 5-22 in Thirtieth Annual Report of the Board of Directors of the Zoological Society of Philadelphia. Allen, Lane, and Scott, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. pp.); Ashy Salamander (Plethodon cinereus cinereus: Drowne, Frederick P. 1905. The reptiles and batrachians of Rhode Island. Monograph of the Roger Williams Park Museum 15():1-24); Red Backed Salamander (Plethodon cinerus erythronotus: Drowne, Frederick P. 1905. The reptiles and batrachians of Rhode Island. Monograph of the Roger Williams Park Museum 15():1-24); Dapple Salamander (Plethodon erythronotus: Fowler, Henry W. 1907. The amphibians and reptiles of New Jersey. MacCrellish and Quigley, Trenton, N. J.. 29-250pp.); Red Backed Salamander (Plethodon erythronotus: Fowler, Henry W. 1907. The amphibians and reptiles of New Jersey. MacCrellish and Quigley, Trenton, N. J.. 29-250pp.); Gray Salamander (Plethodon erythronotus: Fowler, Henry W. 1907. The amphibians and reptiles of New Jersey. MacCrellish and Quigley, Trenton, N. J.. 29-250pp.); Dusky Salamander (Plethodon cinereus: Stejneger, Leonhard H. and Thomas Barbour. 1917. A Checklist of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. pp.); Redbacked Salamander (Plethodon cinereus: Stejneger, Leonhard H. and Thomas Barbour. 1917. A Checklist of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. pp.); Red-backed Salamander (Plethodon cinereus: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Red-backed Salamander (Plethodon cinereus cinereus: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Lead-backed Salamander (Plethodon cinereus cinereus: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Lead-backed Salamander (Plethodon cinereus cinereus: Conant, Roger, Fred R. Cagle, Coleman J. Goin, Charles H. Lowe, Wilfred T. Neill, M. Graham Netting, Karl P. Schmidt, Charles E. Shaw, Robert C. Stebbins, and Charles M. Bogert. 1956. Common names for North American amphibians and reptiles. Copeia 1956(3):172-185); Northern Blue Ridge Salamander (Plethodon huldae: Conant, Roger, Fred R. Cagle, Coleman J. Goin, Charles H. Lowe, Wilfred T. Neill, M. Graham Netting, Karl P. Schmidt, Charles E. Shaw, Robert C. Stebbins, and Charles M. Bogert. 1956. Common names for North American amphibians and reptiles. Copeia 1956(3):172-185); Blacksburg Salamander (Plethodon huldae: Conant, Roger, Fred R. Cagle, Coleman J. Goin, Charles H. Lowe, Wilfred T. Neill, M. Graham Netting, Karl P. Schmidt, Charles E. Shaw, Robert C. Stebbins, and Charles M. Bogert. 1956. Common names for North American amphibians and reptiles. Copeia 1956(3):172-185); Shenandoah Salamander (Plethodon huldae: Conant, Roger, Fred R. Cagle, Coleman J. Goin, Charles H. Lowe, Wilfred T. Neill, M. Graham Netting, Karl P. Schmidt, Charles E. Shaw, Robert C. Stebbins, and Charles M. Bogert. 1956. Common names for North American amphibians and reptiles. Copeia 1956(3):172-185);

Taxon Links:

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

Selected References:
1818 Green, Jacob. Descriptions of several species of North American Amphibia, accompanied with observations. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 1:348-359
1956 Highton, Richard. The relationships of the salamanders of the genus Plethodon. Dissertation. University of Florida, Gainesville. 224pp.
1956 Highton, Richard and Arnold B. Grobman. Two new salamanders of the genus Plethodon from the southeastern United States. Herpetologica 12:185-188
1957 Thurow, Gordon R. Relationships of the red-backed and zig-zag Plethodons in the west. Herpetologica 13(2):91-99
1959 Highton, Richard. The inheritance of the color phases of Plethodon cinereus. Copeia 1959(1):33-37
1960 Highton, Richard. Heritability of geographic variation in trunk segmentation in the red-backed salamander, Plethodon cinereus. Evolution 14(3):351-360
1962 Highton, Richard. Revision of North American salamanders of the genus Plethodon. Bulletin of the Florida State Museum, Biological Sciences 6(3):235-267
1963 Smith, Philip W. Plethodon cinereus Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (5):1-3
1976 Highton, Richard and T. P. Webster. Geographic protein variation and divergence in populations of the salamander Plethodon cinereus. Evolution 30(1):33-35
1978 Pfingston, Ralph A. and Charles F. Walker. Some nearly all black populations of Plethodon cinereus (Amphibia, Urodela, Plethodontidae) in northern Ohio. Journal of Herpetology 12(2):163-167
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
2004 Sites, Jack W., Jr, Mariana Morando, Richard Highton, Fred Huber, and Robin E. Jung. Phylogenetic relationships of the endangered Shenandoah Salamander (Plethodon shenandoah) and other salamanders of the Plethodon cinereus group (Caudata: Plethodontidae). Journal of Herpetology 38(1):96-105
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: Sunday 08 June 2025 11:16 CT