66 Nelson G. Hairston, Sr. 



some populations of P. jordani figured by Hairston and Pope (1948). 

 His conclusion was that only a representative of glutinosus is present 

 on Teyahalee Bald and that it has genetically swamped a pre-existing 

 form of jordani (Highton and Henry 1970); Highton 1972, 1989), 

 using that as his justification for appropriating the name teyahalee. 



We have known for more than 50 years that the high-altitude 

 red-legged form of P. jordani and the low-altitude white-spotted form 

 then known as glutinosus are hybridizing at intermediate elevations 

 throughout the Nantahala Mountains, a short distance from Teyahalee 

 Bald (Bishop 1941, Highton and Henry 1970). As the hybrid zone in 

 the Nantahala Mountains is spreading toward higher elevations 

 (Hairston et al. 1992), Highton's interpretation appears reasonable. More 

 recently, some hybridization has been found at other localities, but 

 not in the area between the Tuckaseegee and French Broad rivers, 

 nor in the western two-thirds of the Great Smoky Mountains, nor in 

 the Cheoah, Max Patch, or Sandy Mush mountains, nor in the southern 

 95% of the Balsam Mountains, i.e., not in more than half of the 

 distribution of this representative of the glutinosus complex. 



The important question is the status of the population of Plethodon 

 on Teyahalee Bald. Allozyme data presented by Peabody (1978) show 

 that these animals are intermediate between neighboring populations 

 of jordani and the low-altitude representative of the glutinosus complex. 

 In fact, the calculated values of Nei's Genetic Identity are more 

 similar to the nearest populations of jordani than they are to the 

 nearest populations of the glutinosus complex (Table 1). The genetic 

 swamping is thus so incomplete that the entire population on Teyahalee 

 Bald must be regarded as hybrids, and judging from the history in 

 the adjacent Nantahala Mountains have been hybrids since at least 

 1938 (Bishop 1941) and probably earlier (Hairston et al. 1992). 



Table 1. Genetic identities (Nei's I [Nei 1972]) among the Teyahalee Bald 

 population, the nearest populations of the Plethodon glutinosus complex, and the 

 nearest populations of the P. jordani complex. Note that both jordani and 

 glutinosus are represented at Cheoah and Unicoi West. Data from Peabody (1978). 







Species Complex 









P. glutinosus 







P. jordani 





Location 



Distance from 

 Teyahalee (km) 



Nei's I 



Location 



Distance from 

 Teyahalee (km) 



Nei's I 



Cheoah 



11.6 



0.963 



Cheoah 



11.6 



0.805 



Unicoi West 



21.8 



0.694 



Unicoi East 



16.0 



0.900 



Fontana 



24.0 



0.941 



Wayah 



16.5 



0.942 









Tusquitee 



16.7 



0.969 









Unicoi West 



21.8 



0.920 



