136 Alvin L. Braswell and Nora A. Murdock 



portion of its range it is known from several disjunct localities (Shoop 

 1964, Conant 1975). In North Carolina, A. talpoideum has been reported 

 only from the southwestern Mountains: Cherokee Co. — Huheey and Stupka 

 (1967) [= 19.3 km w Murphy; Field Museum of Natural History = 

 FMNH, 10 specimens]; Henderson Co. — (Fowler and Dunn 1917; 

 Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 1 specimen). Bishop (1943) 

 mentioned its occurrence in Transylvania County, but we have been un- 

 able to locate voucher specimens. 



Additional North Carolina A. talpoideum localities, with numbers of 

 specimens following museum designations, are: Buncombe Co. — 37.0 km ne 

 Brevard (Charleston Museum = ChM, 30), 11.3 km ssw Asheville 

 (University of Michigan Museum of Zoology = UMMZ, 1 gilled), 12.1 

 km sw Asheville (North Carolina State Museum of Natural History = 

 NCSM, 16), 3.6 km nnw town of Avery Creek (NCSM, 6 + 40 gilled); 

 Cherokee Co.— 8.0 km w Murphy (ChM, 11), 6.4 km w Murphy (ChM, 6), 

 9.3 km sw Murphy (University of Kansas = KU, 1), 8.0 km sw Murphy 

 (NCSM, 14 gilled); Macon Co. —22.5 km wsw Franklin (NCSM, 6 + 185 

 gilled); Surry Co. —Pilot Mountain State Park (NCSM, 5 + 11 gilled); 

 Union Co. —26.2 km ne Monroe (NCSM, 10 + 131 gilled). The Bun- 

 combe County records probably are from the same locality ("Sandy Bot- 

 tom"), reported in various ways by different collectors. Investigation of 

 the Cherokee County records revealed that the probable locality for all 

 specimens previously (Huheey and Stupka 1967) and herein reported, 

 with the possible exception of the KU specimen, is 8.0 km southwest of 

 Murphy. All North Carolina localities are shown in Fig. 1. 



The specimens from Union and Surry counties represent the first North 

 Carolina records east of the Eastern Continental Divide. Both localities 

 are in the Yadkin- Pee Dee River drainage of the Piedmont. Ambystoma 

 talpoideum is not known from this drainage in South Carolina. The Surry 

 County locality, only 31 km south of the Virginia border, is the most 

 northeastern record for the species. It is about 250 km north of the 

 nearest South Carolina locality near Columbia (Shoop 1964), and 212 km 

 northeast of the nearest mountain locality near Asheville, Buncombe 

 County. 



The North Carolina A. talpoideum localities apparently are disjunct and 

 represent relict populations from a time that favored a more northern dis- 

 tribution. Smith (1957) attributed disjunct northern populations of A. 

 talpoideum in the Prairie Penninsula region to the post-Wisconsin 

 "Climatic Optimum" and the following "Xerothermic" period. The fac- 

 tors that Smith discussed may explain the North Carolina populations. 

 However, the climate of the post-Wisconsin period and its effects on the 

 southeastern United States are far from fully understood (Wright 1976). 



