New Amphibian and Reptile Distribution Records from Eastern South Dakota, USA

Authors

Drew R. Davis, The University of Texas Rio Grande ValleyFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2021

Abstract

Over recent years, the continued collection of voucher specimens has helped to better document the distributions of South Dakota’s amphibians and reptiles. Despite large increases in our knowledge of these distributions, it remains clear that gaps in our understanding remain. Here, I report 17 new county records of six species of amphibians and reptiles from eastern South Dakota (east of the Missouri River) that are the result of fieldwork conducted in September 2020. The majority of these records are from the northern portions of the James River Lowland, Missouri Coteau, and Drift Plains ecoregions (Bryce et al. 1998), which are areas where specimen records are lacking (DRD, unpubl. data). County records were determined by examining Ballinger et al. (2000), Platt et al. (2005), Davis et al. (2016, 2017a, b), Austin et al. (2017), Davis (2018), Davis and Farkas (2018), individual accounts published in Herpetological Review, and a thorough review of museum holdings. All specimens were collected by Drew R. Davis and deposited at the Biodiversity Collections, University of Texas at Austin (TNHC), and all identifications were verified by Travis J. LaDuc. Locality information was collected with a handheld GPS (WGS 84), and nomenclature used follows that of Crother (2017). Specimens were collected under a South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Scientific Collecting Permit (2020_#2) issued to DRD and followed an approved University of Texas Rio Grande Valley IACUC protocol (AUP #18-28). Genetic tissue samples (liver or skeletal muscle) were collected from all individuals and deposited alongside the specimen at TNHC. Many of the nearest known populations to the records included in this note are represented by voucher specimens that were also collected during September 2020 and deposited at TNHC. Additional nearest known populations are represented by voucher specimens housed at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CM), James Ford Bell Museum, University of Minnesota (JFBM), and the former University of South Dakota Herpetological Collection that is now housed at the University of Nebraska State Museum (UNSM).

Comments

© 2021 by Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles

Recommended Citation

Davis, Drew R. 2021. “New Amphibian and Reptile Distribution Records from Eastern South Dakota, USA.” Herpetological Review 52 (1): 97–99.

Publication Title

Herpetological Review