32 Richard Highton 



species, there is character displacement in color morph frequency, so that 

 even in the zone of sympatry all available specimens that have been ex- 

 amined electrophoretically may be correctly allocated to species on the 

 basis of color morph. 



I name the new species for my friend, the late T. Preston Webster, who 

 first called my attention to the remarkable amount of electrophoretic 

 divergence found in southern populations of Plethodon dorsalis representing 

 the new species. 



Plethodon websteri, new species 

 Diagnosis: — An eastern small Plethodon of the P. welleri group (Highton 

 1962) that has virtually the same range of variation as P. dorsalis for all 

 known morphological taxonomic characters, but that differs from P. dor- 

 salis at most genetic loci evaluated electrophoretically. All samples of the 

 two species are completely separable (they do not share a single common 

 allele) at 14 of 26 genetic loci (Larson and Highton 1978): fumarase, 

 glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase- 1, indophenol oxidase-1, indophenol 

 oxidase-2, heart lactate dehydrogenase, muscle lactate dehydrogenase, 

 leucine aminopeptidase, malate dehydrogenase- 1, malate dehydrogenase- 

 2, peptidase-2, transferrin, and general proteins B, C and D. Most pop- 

 ulations of the two species also are distinct at 6 additional loci: esterase, 

 isocitrate dehydrogenase- 1, isocitrate dehydrogenase-2, phosphoglu- 

 comutase, phosphoglucose isomerase and general protein A. Good diag- 

 nostic loci are fumarase, indophenol oxidase-1, indophenol oxidase-2, 

 heart lactate dehydrogenase, malate dehydrogenase-2, and protein C (the 

 polypeptides of P. websteri migrate cathodally to those of P. dorsalis) and 

 leucine aminopeptidase, malate dehydrogenase- 1, peptidase-2 and 

 protein B (the polypeptides of P. websteri migrate anodally to those of P. 

 dorsalis). Plethodon websteri differs from P. welleri in the same morphologi- 

 cal ways as does P. dorsalis (it has modal number of 19 trunk vertebrae 

 compared to 17 in P. welleri; its belly is heavily mottled with red, white 

 and black chromatophores compared to the black belly with small white 

 spotting of P. welleri; and there is color pattern dimorphism in P. websteri: 

 a red or yellow striped dorsal pattern morph and a dark brown unstriped 

 morph in P. websteri compared to an unstriped brown dorsal color pattern 

 heavily mottled with brassy flecking in P. welleri). The electrophoretic 

 data and their genetic analysis are presented in Larson and Highton 

 (1978). 



Holotype: — NMNH 204814, an adult male collected 0.6 km east, 0.9 km 

 south of Howelton, Etowah County, Alabama, on 7 January 1976 by 

 Scott Bunting, Richard Highton, Mark Kielek and Allan Larson. 



