Inyo Mountains salamander
The Inyo Mountains salamander or Inyo slender salamander is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae that is endemic to the Inyo Mountains of California in the western United States.
Description
Batrachoseps campi is one of the largest slender salamanders, a genus otherwise mainly made up of very small species, and can grow to over 6 cm in length. It has a relatively broad head, and is colored brown with numerous gray speckles. These speckles often cover most of the salamander, making it appear silvery-gray. Like all Batrachoseps salamanders, it has only four toes on its hind feet. It has no dorsal stripe, a trait shared within Batrachoseps only with Batrachoseps gabrieli.Distribution and habitat
Batrachoseps campi is endemic to the Inyo Mountains and limited to 20 known localities, located in Inyo County in eastern California, occupying a wide range of elevations from.The Inyo Mountains are extremely dry, especially at low elevations, resulting in Batrachoseps campi being largely restricted to small permanent springs inside steep canyons on both sides of the range. However, pitfall traps have recorded individuals far from these water sources, indicating that the species' underground distribution may occupy significantly more of the mountain range.
Despite the nearby White Mountains having similar canyon springs with riparian-restricted endemic species that overlap with the range of this species, Batrachoseps campi has never been recorded in the White Mountains or at any springs north of Waucoba canyon. The northernmost and southernmost localities where B. campi has been recorded are separated by only about 40 km.
Ecology
Batrachoseps campi eats small insects and invertebrates. No eggs have ever been found, but it is assumed that this species reproduces like all other Batrachoseps slender salamanders without an aquatic larval stage.Taxonomy
Batrachoseps campi has no described subspecies. However, the springs it occupies are effectively completely isolated from each other due to the vast expanses of extremely dry desert mountain terrain separating them, and as such some subpopulations show significant genetic deviation from salamanders in other localities.It is genetically most closely related to Batrachoseps robustus, a species found across the Owens Valley on the Kern Plateau i the Sierra Nevada, and Batrachoseps wrighti, a species found in northern Oregon. This is of particular note because B. wrighti is the furthest slender salamander geographically from either of the other two species, implying that B. campi has been isolated from the rest of the slender salamanders for a relatively long time.