We're finally getting some evening [all day actually] fall rains in SoMN, but sleepless children have kept me from hitting the roads. A couple weeks back I found my first eastern tiger, but it was a fresh roadkill. I've identified other good locations in the area, so hopefully will be able to turn some up. They're rather pretty here, being mainly blackish with small yellow spots. Unfortunately, most of the other caudates in the state will require a 3 hour drive one-way. A few are found closer, but identifying their localities is tricky, and the driving tends to find only one species. At worst, I should be able to find mudpuppies and some more A.laterale close to home.
There is an argument to be made for using a single species [not subspecies] name for all hybrid Ambystoma, mainly that all seem to share mtDNA ancestry with a single extinct species related to A.texanum and A.barbouri. However, the three available names have been applied to a group which potentially includes more than 30 different genetic combinations, about half of which have actually been documented. None meet any useful definition of a species, as they don't reproduce themselves. Depending on which species or hybrid they interbreed with, a single clutch of siblings can include essentially pure members of five distinct species (A.texanum, A.tigrinum, A.laterale, A.jeffersonianum, A.barbouri), plus an array of hybrids. How kleptogens ["DNA thieves"] can survive where only a single pure species occurs is still a puzzle, but might be due to a combination of a survival advantage for the kleptogens, and continued transfer of foreign chromosomes into the offspring of pure species. IE, in MN, one population of hybrids is known, but A.texanum, A.barbouri, and A.jeffersonianum are unknown. Presumably A.jeffersonianum occurred at some time, and the hybrids have continued to interbreed with A.laterale, producing more hybrids as well as pure A.laterale. A.jeffersonianum don't reappear, probably because there are never enough A.jeffersonianum chromosomes (LLJ x LL = LLJ, LL; LJ combination inviable].
