RED-LEGGED FALSE-BROOK
SALAMANDER
 At
dusk I pegged my tent beneath one of those relict-community Sweetgums I've told you about
present in this part of the world thanks to the last Ice Age. On that cool, moist
mountaintop the ground was carpeted with moss and when I got comfortable and sat looking
out my tent door I was thrilled to see a stubby- tailed, dark little salamander emerging
from the moss. Probably I'd disturbed him setting up the tent. As salamanders go he was
awfully small and at first I thought his tail was deformed because it was so short. But,
no, this species, about two inches long (5 cm) just had a real short tail. That's my
snapshot at the right.
At first I thought he was void of any decent field mark that would help me identify
him, but then I saw it: Behind each tiny leg appeared patches of orange color, reminiscent
of the leather elbow patches on coats favored by college professors back in the 60s.
I'm fairly sure this was PSEUDOEURYCEA CEPHALICA, supspecies RUBRIMEMBRIS, endemic to a
few states in upland northcentral Mexico and known in the literature as the Red-legged
False-brook Salamander. At this address I read that "Rubrimembris probably deserves
species status, as it is quite distinct morphologically and displays an allopatric
distribution from other cephalica ssp." "Allopatric" means "occurring
in separate, nonoverlapping geographic areas," so this subspecies occurs in an island
population separated from other members of the species, and if it's a species all by
itself it's a narrow endemic.
What a treat seeing this little being occurring only in a tiny part of the whole world,
and known to science so poorly that so far they can't judge whether our population
represents a mere subspecies, or a whole different species all by itself. |