Possible new Slender Salamander species???

So in January of this year a friend and I somewhat accidentally discovered an isolated population of slender salamanders over here in Stockton. Ever since then I have been doing a little personal field research myself to learn more about this population. Well about a month into it I had a crazy idea that these guys might be so isolated that they are a possible new subspecies or new species altogether. Some novice evidence to my theory was a white-spotted belly which isn't common in the B. attenuatus I find in the coast ranges. Well today on December 13, 2015 I happened to find 4. The very first individual I caught was being very cooperative with me and I decided to count the costal grooves on them. This is a better way of identifying the differences in species but it is not always guaranteed. Well I counted, and I could be wrong, but I counted 24 costal grooves. B. attenuatus has 18-21. I could've counted wrong but if I am right I think I might have just discovered a new subspecies or species. I was thinking of getting a DNA test on these guys to see if they are still B. attenuatus or not. Any suggestions or ideas guys? I would be more than glad to take any of them and would be greatly appreciated if I get any!

Posted on 14 December, 2015 02:58 by dominic dominic

Observations

Photos / Sounds

What

Slender Salamanders (Genus Batrachoseps)

Observer

dominic

Date

December 13, 2015

Description

After a long day of Christmas shopping I thought I might check to see if these little guys had come out yet since there was a huge storm this morning. . . I ended up finding 4.

I think I counted wrong but this individual had 24 costal grooves. If so then this guy is not a California sender salamander but either a subspecies or a different species altogether. I think a DNA test would be good.

Photos / Sounds

What

Slender Salamanders (Genus Batrachoseps)

Observer

dominic

Date

December 13, 2015

Description

I found 3 guys underneath a piece of concrete. One got away but I ended up catching 2.

Photos / Sounds

What

Slender Salamanders (Genus Batrachoseps)

Observer

dominic

Date

December 13, 2015

Description

The other individual I caught. . .

Comments

Looks like some folks have done some genetic work on this species:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-294X.2007.03527.x/full

Google scholar is a great way to find some of these scientific articles:
https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Batrachoseps+attenuatus&btnG=&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C44

The papers can be pretty expensive, but if you go to some libraries, they will do "interlibrary loan" and can request them for you. It takes a bit of work, but you can learn a bunch in the process. :)

Posted by sambiology over 8 years ago

Thank you!

Posted by dominic over 8 years ago

I know this is old, but I'd recommend taking a sample and taking it to a museum to see if they can match it with an already existing species

Posted by cliygh-and-mia about 8 years ago

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