PLETHODON KENTUCKI MITTLEMAN: A VALID SPECIES OF CUMBERLAND PLATEAU

Plethodon kentucki Mittleman (1951) is a valid species as determined by an electrophoretic analysis of 22 presumptive genetic loci. There is a substantial amount of genetic differentiation between P. kentucki and the other species of large Appalachian Plethodon of the P. glutinosus group (P. yonahlossee, D = 0.46; P. jordani, D = 0.37, and sympatric P. glutinosus, D = 0.45). There is a great deal of geographic genetic variation among populations of P. kentucki. It ranges from the New River in West Virginia west to southwestem Virginia and eastern Ken- tucky in the Cumberland Plateau section of the Appalachian Plateau Physiographic Province. At 14 of the 15 known localities, it is sympatric with P. glutinosus. No single key morphological characteristic may be used to distinguish all salamanders of the two species, but many individuals differ in chin color (lighter in P. kentucki), size of dorsal spots (smaller in P. kentucki), number of dorsal spots (fewer in P. kentucki) and in the shape of the male mental gland (larger in P. kentucki). P. kentucki is a smaller species than P. glutinosus.