Plethodon punctatus Highton 1972

English name: Cow Knob salamander, Crother et al. 2017; white-spotted salamander, Highton 1988, Petranka 1998

Holotype: United States National Museum of Natural History (USNM) 190224

Type Locality: Cow Knob, Pendleton County, West Virginia.

Remarks: Plethodon punctatus has long been regarded as a distinct species because it is morphologically distinguishable from P. wehrlei, although their close relationship has been recognized. Our analyses corroborate Kuchta et al. (2018) as well as other, more limited analyses (Highton & Larson 1979; Graham 2007; Highton et al.

2012), all of which suggests P. punctatus ’ genetic distinctiveness. This species occurs in the higher elevations of the Ridge and Valley ecoregion, mainly on Shenandoah and North Mountains of West Virginia and Virginia.