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Difference between Ambystoma Cingulatum and Ambystoma Bishopi?

FrogEyes

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They're sister species, both formerly considered A.cingulatum. Recent data supported the raising of bishop from subspecies to distinct species, and some distinguishing features are discussed on page 425-426 of the paper which presented the change:

https://www.researchgate.net/profil..._test_case/links/0deec520c8ef86ce4b000000.pdf

I'd have to look through my various guides to see if "Ambystoma cingulatum bishopi" is included in any of them, and distinguished. It would seem that the original subspecies has the same distribution as the current species, so the identifying traits from 1950 likely still hold true. Frequently, when old names are resurrected or changed in status, the modern distribution is different from originally believed, and the distinguishing features are also different. All that remains the same is that the type specimen owns the name and belongs to both the old and current concepts.
 

TheAmphibianGuy

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I was doing research on I think Ambystoma bishopi and it said that they lay their eggs in areas that don't have water in vernal pools but then the pool fills up is that true for both speices?
 

pierson_hill

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I was doing research on I think Ambystoma bishopi and it said that they lay their eggs in areas that don't have water in vernal pools but then the pool fills up is that true for both speices?


The two species are nearly ecologically identical, with the same larval and adult habitat preferences, oviposition behavior, etc. For egg laying, they do deposit in dry pond basins. They require a specific suite diverse of fire-maintained vegetation composed of dense layers of rosette-forming herbs combined with emergent grasses. The vegetation structure provides a moist and sheltered microclimate for the eggs, which are often placed directly on the bare soil beneath the plants. The combination of the herbaceous layer and the bare mineral soil seems to provide a critical moisture-wicking function that keeps the eggs from desiccating before the ponds fill. The dense herbs/grasses at the nesting sites also provide important larval cover shortly after hatching. This critical vegetation community needs to be burned regularly to prevent litter accumulation and the succession of woody trees and shrubs. Due to the way prescribed fires are applied to flatwoods salamander habitats, fires very rarely burn into the breeding ponds and the nesting and larval microhabitats have almost completely disappeared from the vast majority of their breeding ponds.
 
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