Gyrinophilus palleucus necturoides

taxobox
name=Big Mouth Cave salamander
status=T1
status_system=TNC
regnum=Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Amphibia
ordo = Caudata
familia = Plethodontidae
genus="Gyrinophilus"
species="G. palleucus"
subspecies="G. p. necturoides"
subspecies_authority=Lazell and Brandon, 1962
binomial="Gyrinophilus palleucus necturoides"

Big Mouth Cave salamander ("Gyrinophilus palleucus necturoides"), a lungless salamander, is an infraspecies of Tennessee cave salamander which lives exclusively in Big Mouth Cave in the Elk River drainage basin in Grundy County, Tennessee. The salamander was first described by Lazell and Brandon in 1962.

Conservation status

While the TNC rates the Big Mouth Cave salamander as "critically imperiled", IUCN claims it is only "vulnerable". A study in 2007 by Brian T. Miller and Matthew L. Niemiller investigated the actual population size of the infraspecies. They determined that the species was actually abundant in the Big Mouth Cave, contrary to popular concern.

References

[http://www.herpetology.us/niemiller/_Media/miller_niemiller_2008.pdf Distribution and relative abundance of Tennessee cave salamanders ("Gyrinophilus palleucus" and "Gyrinophilus gulolineatus") with an emphasis on Tennessee populations]