10 Richard Highton 



are the same salamanders studied by Peabody (1978) and are from near 

 Junction, on Snowbird Creek (locality 13) and Johns Knob (locality 14). 

 The distribution of P. jordani in the Unicoi Mountains was mapped by 

 Highton (1970) and its range supposedly includes all of the higher areas of 

 this mountain range. It was therefore surprising to discover that at four 

 localities in the northernmost part of the Unicoi Mountains, populations 

 resembling P. jordani in coloration (no dorsal spotting and reduced lateral 

 spotting), are assigned genetically to P. aureolus. These are from near 

 Cherry Log Gap (localities 22 and 23), Naked Ground (locality 38), and 

 Stratton Bald (locality 39). Thus the northernmost known sites for P. 

 jordani in the Unicoi Mountains are now in the vicinity of Johns Knob. 

 Highton (1970) called attention to the apparent hybridization between P. 

 jordani and P. teyahalee all around the periphery of the range oi P. jordani 

 in the Unicoi Mountains. Two transects reported by Peabody ( 1 978) (from 

 Johns Knob west along the North River, and from Junction east along 

 Snowbird Creek) have confirmed this hybridization genetically. 



At some of the 84 localities few animals were collected. Voucher 

 specimens were preserved from all of the sites, and tissue samples (usually 

 viscera and tail muscle) from some were used for electrophoresis instead of 

 the material used in my previous work on Plethodon (whole animal 

 homogenates). The three general protein loci usually cannot be scored 

 from homogenates of viscera and tail muscle. Rather than use many with 

 small sample sizes and/ or incomplete genetic data, I present here the 

 results of a complete genetic analysis of only 1 7 populations in addition to 

 the sample of P. glutinosus from New Jersey (locality 10). These are from 

 scattered sites throughout the local ranges of the four species: 4 P. aureolus 

 (localities 1-4), 6 P. glutinosus (localities 4-9), 5 P. teyahalee (localities 1 , 2, 

 4,11,12) and 2 P. jordani (localities 1 3 and 1 4). Three species are sy mpatric 

 at locality 4, and P. aureolus and P. teyahalee are sympatric at localities 1 

 and 2. Material from all other localities shows no unusual genetic variation 

 beyond that observed in the 18 samples for which complete genetic analysis 

 is presented. 



Table 2 provides the frequency data of genie variation of 18 popula- 

 tions from 14 localities. Of the 22 presumed genetic loci evaluated, 3 

 (Mdh-1, Pep, and Pt-3) show no variation. Three loci are monomorphic 

 except for a single population: a-Gpd has a rare slower allelomorph in P. 

 glutinosus (.02) at locality 8, Gdh has a slower allelomorph (.29) in P. 

 teyahalee at locality 1, and Mdh-2 has a rare faster allelomorph (.02) in P. 

 aureolus at locality 2. Table 3 gives Nei standard genetic distances {D) and 

 normalized identity of genes (/) (Nei 1972) for all comparisons and the 

 mean heterozygosity (//) estimated from allelomorph frequencies. The / 

 values are clustered by the UPGM A method (Sneath and Sokal 1973) in a 

 phenogram in Figure 3. 



