Desmognathus monticola found in Arkansas!

I herped that area a lot too back in the 80's and never saw one, really strange. I'd have to set in the "introduced" crowd for now, but I would like to here about the old original report from the 30's. Look at how P.neomexicanus was originally treated and ignored.
 
Yeah, considering how much cryptic speciation has occured within the various Desmognathus groups (fuscus complex, ochrophaeus complex, quadramaculatus complex, etc.) since the last time the population of monticola in AR would have been joined with the populations from Appalachia, it seems impossible to me that even if they were not introduced, they would fall out genetically with other monticola so neatly and nicely. But, I guess I'll suspend judgement until I read the author's hypothesis about all of this
 
Update here: talked to Arkansas' State herpetologist Kelly Irwin today. He informs me that this population was confirmed to be genetically related to monticola from Georgia and almost certainly represent introduced animals.

I've seen photos of the animals, and they sure don't look like any monticola I've ever seen. Pretty interesting. Just goes to show how hard it is to correctly identify some monticola/fuscus/conanti/santeetlah/auriculatus with just color patterns.
 
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