New Species Plethodon 35 



The chin and belly had red, white, and black pigment in the following 

 proportions: chin 50:40:10, belly 30:60:10. It is a mature male with a 

 rounded mental gland as in P. dorsalu and P. welleri (Highton 1962:fig. 

 2D). 



Distribution: — P. websten is known from east central Alabama and west 

 central Georgia. Apparently disjunct populations occur in Clarke 

 County, Alabama, Winston County, Mississippi, and McCormick 

 County, South Carolina (figure 1). 



Variation in P. websteri: — The modal number of trunk vertebrae in all 

 known populations of P. dorsalu is 19. This is also true for P. websteri with 

 the exception of the two samples from McCormick County, South 

 Carolina. Both have slightly more individuals with 20 trunk vertebrae 

 than they do with 19 (mean = 19.6 in the more southern sample and 19.8 

 in the more northern sample). 



As in P. dorsalis, most samples of P. websteri include salamanders of both 

 the red striped and unstriped morphs, and individuals intermediate be- 

 tween the two. Because of the difficulty of classifying intermediate in- 

 dividuals, it is impossible to objectively quantify the data on the frequen- 

 cies of the color morphs. This is in contrast to several other species of the 

 genus in which few or no intermediates between the two color morphs oc- 

 cur. In spite of the difficulty in classifying a few individuals, most P. 

 websteri from the immediate vicinity of the zone of contact between P. 

 websteri and P. dorsalis in Blount and Etowah Counties, Alabama are of 

 the red striped morph, while P. dorsalis from nearby Lawrence, Cullman 

 and Blount Counties are of the unstriped morph. At the locality where 

 the two species were taken sympatrically in Jefferson County, Alabama, 8 

 animals of each morph were collected. Of the 1 1 that were examined elec- 

 trophoretically, all 4 P. websteri are of the striped morph and all 7 P. dor- 

 salis are of the unstriped morph. No intermediates are present and no 

 genetic hybrids were found. This same kind of character displacement in 

 color morph frequencies has been reported for contact zones of several 

 other pairs of species of eastern small Plethodon (Highton 1962, 1972). 



Remarks: — A photograph of a living individual from Lee County, 

 Alabama appears in Mount (1975:133) and is presumably P. websteri 

 since the locality is within the range of the species. 



Although the holotype of P. websteri has not been subjected to elec- 

 trophoretic analysis, there is little doubt that it belongs to this species. 

 Sixty-four other salamanders from the type locality have been studied 

 electrophoretically and all are P. websteri. 



Additional studies of the zone of contact and/or overlap of the ranges of 

 the two species in Alabama are needed to determine the nature of their 



