Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
Single word	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

Ambystoma opacum (Gravenhorst, 1807)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Ambystomatidae > Genus: Ambystoma > Species: Ambystoma opacum

Salamandra opaca Gravenhorst, 1807, Vergleich. Uebersicht Linn. Neuern Zool. Syst.: 431. Type(s): Not known to exist; although likely including the animal figured in pl. 10 of Gravenhorst, 1829, Delic. Mus. Zool. Vratislav., 1: 75. Type locality: "Neuyork in Nordamerika" (= New York), USA.

Salamandra fasciata Green, 1818, J. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1: 350. Syntypes: ANSP 1420–23, according to Fowler and Dunn, 1917, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 69: 9. Type locality: Not stated but presumably the vicinity of Princeton, New Jersey, USA, the residence of the author; restricted to "vicinity of Princeton, New Jersey", USA, by Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 21. Tentative synonymy by Duméril, Bibron, and Duméril, 1854, Erp. Gen., 9: 63; synonymy by Baird, 1850 "1849", J. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Ser. 2, 1: 283; Cope, 1868 "1867", Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 19: 173.

Salamandra gravenhorstii Fitzinger, 1826, Neue Class. Rept.: 66. Substitute name for Salamandra opaca Gravenhorst, 1807. Attributed to Leuckart.

Ambystoma opaca — Baird, 1850 "1849", J. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Ser. 2, 1: 283.

Amblystoma opacum — Gray, 1850, Cat. Spec. Amph. Coll. Brit. Mus., Batr. Grad.: 36.

Ambystoma faciatum — Duméril, Bibron, and Duméril, 1854, Erp. Gen., 9: 106. Based on specimens of Ambystoma tigrinum by implication of Cope, 1889, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 34: 68.

Salamandra armigera Duméril, Bibron, and Duméril, 1854, Erp. Gen., 9: 106. Nomen nudum attributed to Valenciennes and named in synonymy of Ambystoma fasciatum.

Ambistoma fasciatum — Jan, 1857, Cenni Mus. Civ. Milano: 55. Incorrect subsequent spelling of generic name.

Salamandroides gravenhorstii — Fitzinger, 1864, Bilder Altas Wissenschaftl. Naturgesch. Amph.: pl. 97, fig. 173.

Ambystoma opacum — Dunn, 1918, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 62: 456.

Ambystoma (Ambystoma) opacum — Tihen, 1958, Bull. Florida State Mus., Biol. Sci., 3: 3, 38.

Ambystoma (Xiphonura) opacum — Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2012, Alytes, 28: 77–161.

Common Names

Blotched Salamander (Salamandra fasciata [no longer recognized]: De Kay, 1842, Zool. New York, 1(3): 76; Amblystoma opacum: Smith, 1877, Tailed Amph.: 37).

Banded Salamander (Salamandra fasciata [no longer recognized]: Green, 1818, J. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1: 350; Gray, 1831, in Cuvier, Animal Kingdom (Griffith), 9—Appendix: 106; Storer, 1840, Boston J. Nat. Hist., 3: 56; Bishop, 1943, Handb. Salamanders: 103).

Banded Salamander (Ambystoma opacum: Bishop, 1943, Handb. Salamanders: 103).

Marbled Salamander (Ambystoma opacum: Yarrow, 1882, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 24: 20; Hay, 1892, Annu. Rep. Dept. Geol. Nat. Res. Indiana for 1891: 437; Fowler, 1907, Annu. Rep. N.J. State Mus. for 1906: 39; Brimley, 1907, J. Elisha Mitchell Sci. Soc., 23: 153; Strecker, 1915, Baylor Univ. Bull., 18: 55; Stejneger and Barbour, 1917, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept.: 10; Bishop, 1943, Handb. Salamanders: 147; Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 21; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 27; Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 5; Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 18; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 14; Collins and Taggart, 2009, Standard Common Curr. Sci. Names N. Am. Amph. Turtles Rept. Crocodil., ed. 6: 10; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 24; Powell, Conant, and Collins, 2016, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. North Am., 4th ed.: 35; Highton, Bonett, and Jockusch, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 23).

Blotched Salamander (Fowler, 1907, Annu. Rep. N.J. State Mus. for 1906: 39).

Opaque Salamander (Jordan, 1878, Man. Vert. North. U.S., Ed. 2: 195; Davis and Rice, 1883, Bull. Chicago Acad. Sci., 1: 26).

Distribution

From southern New Hampshire and southern New York, west to northern Indiana and adjacent Michigan and south to northern Florida, and southwestward to eastern Oklahoma and eastern Texas, USA.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: United States of America, United States of America - Alabama, United States of America - Arkansas, United States of America - Connecticut, United States of America - Delaware, United States of America - District of Columbia, United States of America - Florida, United States of America - Georgia, United States of America - Illinois, United States of America - Indiana, United States of America - Kentucky, United States of America - Louisiana, United States of America - Maryland, United States of America - Massachusetts, United States of America - Michigan, United States of America - Mississippi, United States of America - Missouri, United States of America - New Hampshire, United States of America - New Jersey, United States of America - New York, United States of America - North Carolina, United States of America - Ohio, United States of America - Oklahoma, United States of America - Pennsylvania, United States of America - Rhode Island, United States of America - South Carolina, United States of America - Tennessee, United States of America - Texas, United States of America - Virginia, United States of America - West Virginia

Endemic: United States of America

Comment

See detailed accounts by Anderson, 1967, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 46: 1–2, Petranka, 1998, Salamand. U.S. Canada: 88–96, and Scott, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 627–632. Williams, Lawson, Brown, Bouchonet, Dancourt, and Beane, 2014, Herpetol. Rev., 45: 86, provided a northern record in the Appalachians of North Carolina, USA Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 106–107, provided a brief account, photo, and map. Altig and McDiarmid, 2015, Handb. Larval Amph. US and Canada: 90–92, provided an account of larval morphology. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 168–170, provided an account, summarizing systematics, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map). Bassett, 2023, Reptiles & Amphibians, 30(e18486): 1–18, provided an updated county distribution map for Texas, USA.

External links:

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For access to general information see Wikipedia
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For images search CalPhoto Images and Google Images
To search the NIH genetic sequence database, see GenBank
For additional information see AmphibiaWeb report
For information on conservation status and distribution see the IUCN Redlist
For information on distribution, habitat, and conservation see the Map of Life
For related information on conservation and images as well as observations see iNaturalist