West Virginia Spring Salamander

Open encyclopedia reference

The West Virginia spring salamander (Gyrinophilus subterraneus) is a species of troglobitic salamander in the family Plethodontidae. It is endemic to West Virginia, the United States. The salamander is only found in the General Davis Cave in Greenbrier County and lives in cave stream passages with large amounts of decaying organic matter. It is considered critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and is under review for listing under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. General Davis Cave forms part of the 4.4-square-mile (11 km2) Davis Hollow drainage basin, itself part of the Greenbrier River watershed. A conservation easement for this cave has been purchased by The Nature Conservancy and it is closed to the public in order to protect this salamander and a small bat colony. Like the western grotto salamander (Eurycea spelaea), the West Virginia spring salamander can undergo complete metamorphosis, which is very rare among cave salamanders. It is not known how often metamorphosis occurs, but when it does, it happens after the larvae have reached a very large size.

Wikipedia contributors, West Virginia spring salamander; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T13:04:28.048916+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Gyrinophilus subterraneus Besharse & Holsinger, 1977

Name authority

Besharse & Holsinger, 1977

Common name

West Virginia Spring Salamander

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Amphibia

Order

Caudata

Family

Plethodontidae

Genus

Gyrinophilus

Extinction status

Recorded extant

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. megaclassTetrapoda
8. classAmphibia
9. orderCaudata
10. familyPlethodontidae Gray, 1850
11. subfamilyHemidactyliinae Hallowell, 1856
12. genusGyrinophilus Cope, 1869
13. speciesGyrinophilus subterraneus Besharse & Holsinger, 1977

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Gyrinophilus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 371 records assigned to Plethodontidae.

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=208350 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:3HYSX. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.