Liua Zhao and Hu, 1983

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Hynobiidae > Subfamily: Hynobiinae > Genus: Liua
2 species

Liua Zhao and Hu, 1983, Acta Herpetol. Sinica, Chengdu, N.S.,, 2 (2): 30. Type species: Hynobius wushanensis Liu, Hu, and Yang, 1960 (= Hynobius shihi Liu, 1950), by original designation.

Liuia — Brame, 1985, in Frost (ed.), Amph. Species World: 565. Incorrect subsequent spelling.

Liua — Kuzmin, 1999, Amph. Former Soviet Union: 116. Treatment as a subgenus of Ranodon.

Tsinpa Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2012, Alytes, 28: 159. Type genus: Ranodon tsinpaensis Liu and Hu, 1966, by original designation. See comment under Liua tsinpaensis.  

Common Names

Sichuan Salamanders (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 28).

Distribution

Montane Chonqing (Chengkou, Wushan, and Wushi), Sichuan (Wangyuan), western Hubei (Badong, Shennongjia, and Yichang), Henan, southern Shaanxi, and northeastern Sichuan Provinces, China, 900–2350 m elevation.

Comment

Removed from the synonymy of Ranodon by Zhang, Chen, Zhou, Liu, Wang, Papenfuss, Wake, and Qu, 2006, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 103: 7360–7365, on the basis of being phylogenetically distant from Ranodon, where it had been placed by Ye, Fei, and Hu, 1993, Rare and Economic Amph. China: 53; Kuzmin and Thiesmeier, 2001, Adv. Amph. Res. Former Soviet Union, 6: 13; Fei, Ye, Huang, Jiang, and Xie, 2005, in Fei et al. (eds.), Illust. Key Chinese Amph.: 35. See Zhao, 1994, Sichuan J. Zool., 13: 161–166, for a revised diagnosis of Liua. Ye, Fei, and Hu, 1993, Rare and Economic Amph. China: 53, considered Liua a synonym of Ranodon as did Kuzmin, 1999, Amph. Former Soviet Union: 116 (as a subgenus of Ranodon), and Fei and Ye, 2001, Color Handbook Amph. Sichuan: 87, although retained by Thorn and Raffaëlli, 2000, Salamand. Ancien Monde: 103. Liua considered distinct by Xu, 2001, Sichuan J. Zool., 20: 177–180; and Xu, 2002, Acta Scient. Nat. Univ. Sunyatseni, 41: 79–81. Larson, Weisrock, and Kozak, 2003, in Sever (ed.), Reprod. Biol. Phylogeny Urodela: 43, Li, Wu, and Wang, 2004, Acta Zool. Sinica, 50: 464–469, suggested on the basis of molecular evidence that Ranodon flavomaculatus, Ranodon shihi, and Ranodon tsinpaensis (the former Liua and Pseudohynobius) may not be closely related closely to Ranodon sibiricus.  Xiong, Liu, and Zhang, 2016, Asian Herpetol. Res., 7: 112–121, compared the skulls of Liua shihi with Liua tsinpaensis. Fei and Ye, 2016, Amph. China, 1: 230, treated Liua as a subgenus of Ranodon, one of three acceptable taxonomies given the phylogeny of the group: a–b) Ranodon and Liua as coordinate genera or subgenera; c) Liua and Ranodon as synonyms. Sparreboom, 2014, Salamanders Old World: 103–106, reviewed the biology, characteristics, distribution, reproduction, and conservation of the species. Jia, Gao, Jiang, Bever, Xiong, and Wei, 2021, J. Anat., 238: 219–248, discussed cranial anatomy. 

Contained taxa (2 sp.):

Liua shihi (Liu, 1950)
Liua tsinpaensis (Liu and Hu, 1966)

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