Tests for Sexual Isolation in Plethodontid Salamanders (Genus Desmognathus)

Abstract

This study establishes the feasibility of measuring sexual isolation between populations of plethodontid salamanders. Sexual isolation between Virginia and Tennessee populations of Desmognathus ochrophaeus and between D. ochrophaeus and D. fuscus was studied by staging mating trials in the laboratory. The two populations of D. ochrophaeus showed statistically significant but incomplete sexual isolation. In contrast, we found nearly complete isolation between D. ochrophaeus and D. fuscus. In recent years the systematics of the more than 250 extant species of pletho- dontid salamanders have been intensively