Climbing salamander


Climbing salamanders is the common name for plethodontid salamanders of the genus Aneides. As this name suggests, most of these species have prehensile tails and are as mobile up a tree as in a stream.

Taxonomy

The green salamander and the Hickory Nut Gorge green salamander 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 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:
Subgenus Castaneides:
Subgenus Aneides:
Nota bene: A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than Aneides.