Phylogenetic Relationships Within the Lowland Tropical Salamanders of the Bolitoglossa Mexicana Complex (Amphibia: Plethodontidae)

Abstract

This is one of a projected series of papers dealing with phylogenetic relationships in the genus Bolitoglossa, the largest and most widely distributed genus in the Order Caudata and one that includes about 20% of recognized salamander species. Our strategy is to investigate primary taxa in proposed subgroups of the genus with the goal of discovering monophyletic groups. When such groups are found, representatives are selected to investigate species-level relationships in other groups, with the goal of establishing a robust phylogenetic hypothesis for the genus. The monophyly of the super-genus Bolitoglossa is well supported on both morphological and molecular grounds (Jackman et al., 1997;Lombard and Wake, 1986), and the genus Bolitoglossa is supported on morphological characters (Wake and Elias, 1983) but lineages within both taxa are less well established.