''Pseudoeurycea firscheini'' is a species of

salamander Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by their lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults. All ten ...

in the family Plethodontidae. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca of west-central

Veracruz Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...

, Mexico, and known from

Acultzingo Acultzingo Municipality is a municipality in Veracruz, Mexico. It is located about 220 km from state capital Xalapa to the south-west. Borders Acultzingo Municipality is delimited to the east by Soledad Atzompan Municipality, to the south and ...

(its type locality) on the

Puebla Puebla ( en, colony, settlement), officially Free and Sovereign State of Puebla ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Puebla), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its cap ...

–Veracruz border eastward to the Sierra Zongolica. It is also known as the Firschein's false brook salamander or simply Firschein's salamander. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

''firscheini'' honors Mr. Irwin Lester Firschein, an American biologist, geneticists, and anthropologist. The authors acknowledge Firschein for his explorations on Volcan San Martin, said to "have done much toward stimulating interest in this region of Mexico".

Description

''Pseudoeurycea firscheini'' was described based on four specimens of unspecified sex, including the

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

measuring in snout–vent length and a juvenile measuring in snout–vent length and in total length. The adults have small, lichen-like light spots on the tail. The sides and the underparts of the body are almost black. The hind legs are relatively large. The fingers are less than half-webbed, whereas the slender toes are about one-third webbed.

Habitat and conservation

Its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s are pine-oak forests and lower cloud forests at elevations of

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

. The

type series In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes the ...

was collected in water-filled

bromeliad The Bromeliaceae (the bromeliads) are a family of monocot flowering plants of about 80 genera and 3700 known species, native mainly to the tropical Americas, with several species found in the American subtropics and one in tropical west Africa, ...

s growing on trees at heights of above ground, and it appears to require the presence of abundant bromeliads growing on mature trees in its habitat. The dependence of ''Pseudoeurycea firscheini'' on large bromeliad-covered trees makes it susceptible to

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

caused by expanding agriculture and human settlements and by wood extraction. The species might be present in the Cañón del Río Blanco National Park, but this has yet to be confirmed. Mexican law protects it under the "Special Protection" category.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2212033 firscheini Endemic amphibians of Mexico Fauna of the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca Amphibians described in 1955 Taxa named by Frederick A. Shannon Taxonomy articles created by Polbot