Del Norte or Sisikiyou Mt. Salamanders?

Dedicated exclusively to field herping.

Moderator: Scott Waters

Post Reply
User avatar
mdagz
Posts: 16
Joined: March 23rd, 2014, 1:15 am
Location: Scappoose, OR

Del Norte or Sisikiyou Mt. Salamanders?

Post by mdagz »

I was fortunate enough to find some sweet sallies while in southern Oregon, just not sure if they are P. stormi or P. elongatus.. I found them in three different locations all in the hills surrounding the Applegate river valley, which is in the combined range zone for both.


This first one was found in a relatively drier rocky open draw surrounded by older growth fir;



Image
Image
Image
Image




This next group were all found in a little area of mossy rocks with old growth fir, oak, and madrone. It was a rainy day and these guys were everywhere in this area;



Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image





Found a few more a couple days later on a really dry rocky south facing slope with lots of oak and some remnant old growth fir;



Image
Image
Image
Image



Thanks for the help
User avatar
Fieldnotes
Posts: 1474
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 6:12 pm
Location: Anaheim, California
Contact:

Re: Del Norte or Sisikiyou Mt. Salamanders?

Post by Fieldnotes »

First, congrats on the finding a bunch of Plethodon, they are cool salamanders and some yours look like big, interesting adults.

The first ones showing speckles look like stormi, while the final ones shown, lacking the speckles looks mostly like elongatus. The pictures between, those look a bit like both species. Personally, I would investigate the range of both species and label them according to biologist documentations and museum records prevailing at or near the closest point of where you found them.

++
Although, i still stand by the above statement, after a second view of the salamnaders, the middle group appears to be speckled to some degree and that is a trait of stormi, and not elongatus.
User avatar
mdagz
Posts: 16
Joined: March 23rd, 2014, 1:15 am
Location: Scappoose, OR

Re: Del Norte or Sisikiyou Mt. Salamanders?

Post by mdagz »

Thanks!

Although the third group pix are not good those sallies did have speckles like the other groups. I actually did run into some wildlife techs out there who had a sighting logbook of stormis and elongatus and this area was very close to a combined range habitat but was a little more dominated by stormi finds.
Post Reply