Eurycea wilderae

Jacobs (1987) examined allozyme variation and concluded that Eurycea bislineata subspecies bislineata , cirrigera, and wilderae should be regarded as distinct species. Most subsequent authors, including Sever (1999), have followed this treatment, but Petranka (1998) retained these taxa as subspecies of Eurycea bislineata, pending study of genetic interactions in contact zones.

Camp et al. (2000) examined allozyme and morphological variation in Eurycea at a contact zone between E. cirrigera and E. wilderae in Georgia and concluded that the two are distinct species. Kozak and Montanucci (2001) examined genetic variation across a wilderae-cirrigera contact zone in South Carolina, found evidence of an extended history of reduced gene exchange, and concluded that the two are distinct species.

A phylogeographic analysis of the E. bislineata complex based on mtDNA data (Kozak et al. 2006) revealed that E. cirrigera and E. wilderae as currently circumscribed are not monophyletic lineages but rather consist of several distinct lineages. Eurycea bislineata (as currently defined, separate from E. cirrigera and E. wilderae) was represented by two lineages. Eurycea junaluska and E. aquatica (Alabama samples) each formed monophyletic lineages that were deemed worthy of recognition as distinct species. Kozak et al. did not make a formal taxonomic revision of the E. bislineata complex and did not propose names for the newly identified lineages. Until the taxonomy has been resolved, this database retains E. bislineata, E. cirrigera, and E. wilderae as mapped by Conant and Collins (1991), except that E. aquatica is recognized as a distinct species rather than as part of E. cirrigera.

Bonett et al. (2014 "2013") provided a molecular tree in which this species is recovered as the sister taxon of part of nominal Eurycea cirrigera. Stuart et al. (2020) suggested on molecular grounds that this nominal species is composed of several unnamed lineages, some not particularly closely related (Frost 2020).

Secure in small range in the southern Appalachians.

Southern Appalachian Mountains (mainly the southern Blue Ridge Mountains physiographic province), from western Virginia southward through eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina to western South Carolina and northern Georgia, possibly also northern Alabama (but apparently records there represent E. cirrigera) and north-central South Carolina; ranges elevationally from base-level streams to the tops of the highest peaks (about 1900 m) (Sever 1999).

This species is represented by a large number of occurrences (subpopulations). Dodd (2004) mapped well over 100 locations in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Basically unthreatened, but clearcutting strongly depletes local populations (Petranka et al. 1993).