Santa Cruz black salamander
The Santa Cruz black salamander ("Aneides niger") is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae. It is endemic to the U.S. state of California. Taxonomy. Originally described by George S. Myers and Thomas P. Maslin in 1948 as a subspecies of the speckled black salamander ("A. flavipunctatus"), a 2019 taxonomic study found "A. flavipunctatus" to represent a species complex and "A. niger" to thus represent a distinct species, and reclassified it as such. Distribution. This is the southernmost member of the "A. flavipunctatus" complex, and it is disjunct from all other members of the complex . It is restricted to the San Francisco Peninsula of California, where it inhabits San Mateo, Santa Cruz, and western Santa Clara counties. Description. Unlike all other members of the "Aneides flavipunctatus" complex, adult individuals of this species have an almost uniformly black coloration; juveniles have numerous tiny white spots, as with other members of the complex, that are progressively lost as the individual matures.