Climbing salamanders is the common name for plethodontid (lungless) salamanders of the genus Aneides. It contains 10 species native to North America, distributed between the Pacific Coast (7 species), Sacramento Mountains (1 species), and Appalachian Mountains (2 species). As their common name suggests, most of these species have prehensile tails and are quite mobile in trees.
Taxonomy The green salamander (A. aeneus) and the Hickory Nut Gorge green salamander (A. caryaensis) are now considered to belong to their own subgenus Castaneides, which diverged from the Aneides hardii lineage between 27.2 and 32.3 million years ago, during the Oligocene. Castaneides contains significant cryptic diversity and may contain more as-of-yet undescribed species. All other western Aneides including A. hardii are considered Aneides sensu stricto, and belong to the subgenus of the same name.
Distribution All ten known species in this genus inhabit mountain ecosystems in North America, and all but three are found primarily in the mountains of the west coast of the United States, Baja California and British Columbia. Of the three non-western species, the Sacramento Mountain salamander (A. hardii) is endemic to a mountainous region in New Mexico, while the two currently-described Castaneides species are endemic to the Appalachian Mountains of eastern United States.
Species Ten species in two subgenera are currently assigned to this genus:
SubgenusImageBinomial Name and Author Common nameDistributionIUCN statusCastaneides (Patton et al., 2019)Aneides aeneus Green salamanderEastern United States (Appalachian Mountains, southwest Pennsylvania to northeast Mississippi)Near Threatened Aneides caryaensis Hickory Nut Gorge green salamanderHickory Nut Gorge area of southwest North CarolinaCritically EndangeredAneides (Baird, 1851)Aneides ferreus Clouded salamanderPacific Coast of the United States (northernmost California to southernmost Washington)Least ConcernAneides flavipunctatus Speckled black salamanderPacific Coast of northern CaliforniaLeast ConcernAneides hardii Sacramento Mountain salamanderSacramento Mountains of south-central New MexicoNear ThreatenedAneides iecanus Shasta black salamanderShasta Mountains of northern CaliforniaEndangeredAneides klamathensis Klamath black salamanderPacific Coast of the United States (northern California and southernmost Oregon)Least ConcernAneides lugubris Arboreal salamanderSouthern Pacific Coast of North America (California to northernmost Baja California)Least ConcernAneides niger Santa Cruz black salamanderSanta Cruz Mountains of CaliforniaEndangeredAneides vagrans Wandering salamanderPacific Coast of North America (northern California and Vancouver Island)Least Concern
Nota bene: A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than Aneides. References
Further reading Baird SF (1851). Iconographic Encyclopædia of Science, Literature, and Art. Systematically Arranged by J. G. Heck. Translated from the German, with Additions, and Edited by Spencer F. Baird ... In Four Volumes. Vol II: Botany, Zoology, Anthropology, and Surgery. New York: Rudolph Garrique. xxiv + 203 (Botany) + 502 (Zoology) + 219 (Anthropology and Surgery) + xii + xvi + v (indices) pp. (Aneides, new genus, pp. 256–257 in Zoology).
External links Caudata Culture Species Database - Plethodontidae