Allocation of Salamandra auriculata Holbrook, 1838, with a new species of swamp-dwelling dusky salamander (Plethodontidae: Desmognathus) from the Atlantic Coastal Plain

Most swamp-dwelling dusky salamanders of the genus Desmognathus from the Coastal Plain were long treated as a single species (Desmognathus auriculatus) ranging from east Texas to southeastern Virginia. This taxon concept was based on the name Salamandra auriculata Holbrook, 1838 with type locality Riceboro, Liberty County, Georgia and a type series that could not be located by later authors. Recent workers have been unable to locate or verify swamp-dwelling populations from east Texas and western Louisiana, which appear to be extirpated and may not have represented a distinct taxon from co-occurring lineages of D. conanti. Recent molecular phylogenies have supported at least four distinct species-level taxa within D. auriculatus. Populations from the Gulf Coastal Plain in eastern Louisiana, Mississippi, and southwestern Alabama were recently described as D. valentinei Means, Lamb, and Bernardo, 2017 and D. pascagoula Pyron, O’Connell, Lamb, and Beamer, 2022. This leaves two remaining sp...