Cryptobranchus Leuckart, 1821

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Cryptobranchidae > Genus: Cryptobranchus
1 species

Cryptobranchus Leuckart, 1821, Isis von Oken, 9: 259. Type species: Salamandra salamandroides Leuckart, 1821 (= Salamandra gigantea Barton, 1808), by monotypy. Placed on the Official List of Generic Names in Zoology by Opinion 92, Anonymous, 1926, Smithson. Misc. Collect., 73: 3.

Urotropis Rafinesque, 1822, Kentucky Gazette, Lexington, N.S.,, 1: 3. Type species: Urotropis mucronata Rafinesque, 1822, by monotypy. Synonymy by Brame and Gorham, 1972, Checklist Living & Fossil Salamand. World (Unpubl. MS): 27; Dundee, 1971, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 101: 1.

Protonopsis LeConte, 1824, Ann. Lyc. Nat. Hist. New York, 1: 57. Type species: Salamandra horrida Barton, 1807, by subsequent designation of Barnes, 1828, Am. J. Sci. Arts, 13: 69. Synonymy with Menopoma by Harlan, 1827, J. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 5: 320, and Guérin-Méneville, 1838, Icon. Regne Animal, 3: 18. Synonymy with Salamandrops by Wagler, 1830, Nat. Syst. Amph.: 209. See comment regarding the type species by Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 46. 

Abranchus Harlan, 1825, Ann. Lyc. Nat. Hist. New York, 1: 233. Type species: Salamandra alleganiensis Sonnini and Latreille, 1801, by monotypy. Preoccupied by Abranchus Boie, 1824, but see comment by Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 46–47, implying that this may be a valid name due to inability to locate the Boie paper naming Abranchus (Mollusca) (DRF has also been unable to locate that publication). Synonymy with Menopoma by Harlan, 1827, J. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 5: 320, and Guérin-Méneville, 1838, Icon. Regne Animal, 3: 18. Synonymy (with Protonopsis) by Wagler, 1830, Nat. Syst. Amph.: 209, and Gray, 1850, Cat. Spec. Amph. Coll. Brit. Mus., Batr. Grad.: 53.

Menopoma Harlan, 1825, Ann. Lyc. Nat. Hist. New York, 1: 270. Substitute name for Abranchus Harlan, 1825. Synonymy with Cryptobranchus by Eichwald, 1831, Zool. Special.: 164. Synonymy (with Protonopsis) by Gray, 1850, Cat. Spec. Amph. Coll. Brit. Mus., Batr. Grad.: 53.

Salamandrops Wagler, 1830, Nat. Syst. Amph.: 209. Type species: Salamandra gigantea Barton, 1808, by monotypy. Synonymy (with Protonopsis) by Gray, 1850, Cat. Spec. Amph. Coll. Brit. Mus., Batr. Grad.: 53; (with Menopoma) by Guérin-Méneville, 1838, Icon. Regne Animal, 3: 18, and Baird, 1850 "1849", J. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Ser. 2, 1: 289.

Pelusius Wagler, 1830, Nat. Syst. Amph.: 132. Alternative original name of Salamandrops Wagler, 1830. 

Protonophis — Harlan, 1825, Ann. Lyc. Nat. Hist. New York, 1: 233. Incorrect subsequent spelling. 

Eurycea Rafinesque, 1832, Atlantic. J. and Friend of Knowledge, Philadelphia, 1: 1. Type species: Urotopis mucronata Rafinesque, 1822, by monotypy. Junior homonym of Eurycea Rafinesque, 1822. 

Menopoma — Van der Hoeven, 1833, Handb. Dierkd., 2: 304. Treatment as a subgenus of Amphiuma. 

Monopoma — Bonaparte, 1839, Iconograph. Fauna Ital., 2 (Fasc. 26): 265. Incorrect subsequent spelling. 

Common Names

Hellbenders (Jordan, 1878, Man. Vert. North. U.S., Ed. 2: 196; Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 174; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 5; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 28; Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 6; Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 20; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 15; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 25; Highton, Bonett, and Jockusch, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 25).

Distribution

Southern New York to northern Maryland; southwestern New York to southeastern Missouri, northern Arkansas, extreme northern Mississippi, and in the Appalachian Mountains from northern Alabama to western Pennsylvania, USA.

Comment

See accounts by Dundee, 1971, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 101: 1, and Petranka, 1998, Salamand. U.S. Canada: 139–144. See comment under Andrias. For a detailed, if opaque, discussion of nomenclature of the genus and species see Frétey and Raffaëlli, 2021, Bionomina, 25: 35–51.

Contained taxa (1 sp.):

Cryptobranchus alleganiensis (Sonnini de Manoncourt and Latreille, 1801)

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