Electrophoretic Analysis of Three Species of Necturus 
(Amphibia: Proteidae), and the Taxonomic Status 
of Necturus lewisi (Brimley) 
Ray E. Ashton, Jr. and Alvin L. Braswell 
North Carolina State Museum of Natural History, 
P.O. Box 27647, Raleigh, North Carolina 27611 
AND 
Sheldon I. Guttman 
Department of Zoology, 
Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056 
ABSTRACT.— E\Qcirop\iorQi\c analyses of 10 Necturus maculosus from 
Minnesota, 10 from Massachusetts, and 1 from the Mills River, Hen- 
derson County, North Carolina, were compared with those of 20 
Necturus lewisi and 8 unspotted Necturus punctatus from the Neuse 
River drainage and 8 spotted N. punctatus from Naked Creek, Robeson 
County, North Carolina. Evaluation of 17 loci showed that the three 
samples of N. maculosus were indistinguishable (Nei’s D = 0.000) while 
N. lewisi were unequivocally different from N. punctatus at four loci and 
from N. maculosus at six loci. The two N. punctatus populations were in- 
distinguishable from each other but were distinguishable from N. 
maculosus at 6 loci. These data indicate that N. maculosus, N. lewisi and 
N. punctatus are distinct, long isolated species. 
INTRODUCTION 
Necturus lewisi is one of several endemic species of vertebrates and 
invertebrates found in the Tar and Neuse River drainages of North 
Carolina. This waterdog was originally described by Brimley (1924) as a 
subspecies of Necturus maculosus because of the “spotted larvae”. Viosca 
(1937) briefly described the previously unknown striped larvae of N. 
lewisi and used its medium size and overall spotting as the apparent 
criteria for elevating it to full species status. Ashton and Braswell (1979) 
compared N. lewisi hatchlings and striped larvae with larvae of N. 
maculosus and N. punctatus, and found that the striped larvae of N. lewisi 
were quite distinctive. No electrophoretic studies in the genus have been 
reported. Our study compared electrophoretic data for all three of these 
Necturus species, in an attempt to evaluate the taxonomic status of N. 
lewisi. 
METHODS AND MATERIALS 
Ten N. maculosus from Minnesota were obtained from Nasco, Fort 
Atkinson, Wisconsin and ten from Massachusetts were purchased from 
Connecticut Valley Biological Supply Company, Southampton, 
Massachusetts. One additional N. maculosus was collected in the Mills 
River, Henderson County, North Carolina. Twenty N. lewisi and eight 
unspotted N. punctatus were captured in the Neuse River drainage. Eight 
Brimleyana No. 4: 43-46. December 1980. 
43 
