Desmognathus adatsihi Pyron & Beamer 2022, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Pyron, R. Alexander
name: Beamer, David A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Amphibia
Caudata
Plethodontidae
Desmognathus
Desmognathus adatsihi

description: Desmognathus adatsihi sp. nov.
Holotype: USNM 596065 (RAP0892; Figs. 5–8), collected 14August 2019 by RAP and T. W. Pierson on Cataloochee Balsam in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (NC: Swain; Fig. 9), ~ 1650m ASL.
Paratypes: USNM 596063–4 (RAP0890–1; Figs. 6–8, 10, 11), same collection as the holotype. NCSM 108356 (RAP0909), collected 15 August 2019 by RAP and T. W. Pierson on Rough Ridge (NC: Haywood; 35.543, -83.156), ~ 1610m ASL.
Diagnosis: Several phenotypic characters exhibit varying combinations of states which are purported to be diagnostic and differentiate D. adatsihi from related or similar taxa. This species is a small (~ 23–50mm SVL; n = 15), primarily terrestrial mountain dusky salamander with a tail shorter than the body (up to ~90% SVL) that is round in cross section along its length. It is differentiated from D. santeetlah by the lack of any keeling on the dorsal surface of the tail (vs. presence thereof). It is sometimes differentiated from D. imitator by a morph with the prominent remnants of paired yellowish, reddish, or orangish dorsal spots connected by a wash of lighter pigments on a lighter ground color (Figs. 6–8, 11; vs. more distinct and separated spots on a darker ground color in some D. imitator), or in uniformly dark older specimens, a lack of red cheek patches (Fig. 12a; vs. the presence of such coloration in some uniformly dark D. imitator). Many individuals can be uniquely diagnosed by the presence of an exceptionally straight and unadorned dorsal stripe of brownish or yellowish color (Figs. 5–8, 13a), a characteristic most common in Smokies populations. This trait is never observed in D. imitator, other D. ocoee lineages, or D. santeetlah, which if exhibiting dorsal color pattern, all typically possess paired spots with varying degrees of intercalated melanophore pigmentation, sometimes yielding relatively unadorned stripes with irregular edges. Some individuals from the paratype locality exhibit yellowish dorsal stripes with irregular edges and indistinct black patterning on the mid-dorsal line (Fig. 13b), an arrangement almost never observed in D. apalachicolae and very rarely in any other D. ocoee lineages. Very rarely, other color patterns include characteristic erythristic or xanthic morphs that have never been observed in other species (Figs. 6–8, 10, 14a) and appear to be uniquely diagnostic when present.
Distribution: In the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina and the Plott Balsam Mountains of North Carolina at high elevations. All genetically verified samples illustrated here (Fig. 4) originated> 1500m ASL. Tilley et al. (1978) tentatively suggested ~ 1200m ASL as the approximate lower limit for this species and reported Starkey Gap as the westernmost limit of its range. An informal transect sampling several points at the paratype locality along the western slope of Rough Ridge below Strawberry Knob (NC: Haywood) revealed only D. imitator at ~ 1340m, ~ 1460m, and ~ 1490m, and only D. adatsihi at ~ 1540m, ~ 1570m, and ~ 1610–1630m; previous surveys from near this locality (Mashie Stomp Creek) also found only D. imitator at ~ 1350m (Tilley 2000).
Etymology: From a Tsalagi (Cherokee) word (in syllabary:) that translates in a rough sense to “the mother of all,” in reference to the matrilineal inheritance of the mitochondrion, which has an unusual hybrid ancestry in this species along with ocoee B–D. Name is a non-Latin singular noun used in apposition. We suggest the common names “Cherokee” or “Great Smokies” Mountain Dusky Salamander.
Notes: Comprises the ocoee A lineage first tentatively identified by Tilley et al. (1978) and defined by Kozak et al. (2005), Beamer & Lamb (2020), and Pyron et al. (2020, 2022c). Little is known of the biology of this species. Like many other mountain duskies, it is highly terrestrial and appears to spend most of its adult life on the forest floor significant distances away from any permanent flowing water. Some populations from the Smokies were briefly described by Huheey (1966b) and Dodd (2004). An aberrant, possibly leucistic morph has been observed at the paratype locality (Fig. 15).
The third species accounted for here is the ocoee B lineage, the second member of the Balsam clade of Pyron et al. (2022c). This taxon is distributed throughout the Great Balsam Mountains of western North Carolina, southeast of Balsam Gap. It shares hybridized non-lineal mitochondrial ancestry with Desmognathus adatsihi and ocoee C/D but is otherwise genealogically exclusive and exhibits no apparent admixture with any other lineage. Consequently, we recognize it here as:
description: Published as part of Pyron, R. Alexander & Beamer, David A., 2022, Systematics of the Ocoee Salamander (Plethodontidae: Desmognathus ocoee), with description of two new species from the southern Blue Ridge Mountains, pp. 207-240 in Zootaxa 5190 (2) on pages 215-225, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5190.2.3, http://zenodo.org/record/7120201