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

Speleomantes imperialis (Stefani, 1969)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Plethodontidae > Subfamily: Plethodontinae > Genus: Speleomantes > Species: Speleomantes imperialis

Hydromantes genei imperialis Stefani, 1969 "1968", Arch. Zool. Ital. Torino, 53: 220. Holotype: IZUG unnumbered, by original designation. Type locality: "Grotte di Villasalto, Gerrei (Sardegna sud-orientale)", Italy.

Hydromantes genei funereus Stefani, 1969 "1968", Arch. Zool. Ital. Torino, 53: 222. Holotype: IZUG unnumbered, by original designation. Type locality: "Grotte e diaclasi presso Orroli e Grutta Asutta e Scracca presso Nurri (Sarcidano): Grutta Su Stampu de Muscione Stunnu fra Asuni e Laconi; Grotta Su Marmori presso Ulassai (prov. Nuoro)", Sardinia, Italy. Considered a synonym and indistinguishable from Hydromantes imperialis by Lanza, 1997, in Gasc et al. (eds.), Atlas Amph. Rept. Eur.: 44.

Hydromantes imperialis — Lanza and Vanni, 1981, Monit. Zool. Ital., N.S., Suppl., 15: 117-121; Lanza, Caputo, Nascetti, and Bullini, 1995, Monogr. Mus. Reg. Sci. Nat. Torino, 16: 10.

Hydromantoides (Speleomantes) imperialis — Dubois, 1984, Alytes, 3: 109.

Speleomantes imperialis — Lanza, 1986, in Camard et al. (eds.), Ambiente Nat. Sardegna: 315; Lanza, 1999, in Grossenbacher and Thiesmeier (eds.), Handbuch Rept. Amph. Eur., 4(1): 155; Thorn and Raffaëlli, 2000, Salamand. Ancien Monde: 376; Vieites, Min, and Wake, 2007, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 104: 19903-19907. See also electronic supplemental data.

Speleomantes imperialis imperialis — Lanza, Leo, Forti, Cimmaruta, Caputo, and Nascetti, 2001, Pianura, 13: 83.

Hydromantes (Speleomantes) imperialis — Wake, Salvador, and Alonso-Zarazaga, 2005, Amphibia-Reptilia, 26: 543-548; van der Meijden, Chiari, Mucedda, Carranza, Corti, and Veith, 2009, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 51: 401.

Speleomantes (Speleomantes) imperialis — Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2012, Alytes, 28: 77-161.

Common Names

Odorous Cave Salamander (Lanza, Caputo, Nascetti, and Bullini, 1995, Monogr. Mus. Reg. Sci. Nat. Torino, 16: 10).

Imperial Cave Salamander (Stumpel-Rienks, 1992, Ergänzungsband Handbuch Rept. Amph. Eur., Trivialnamen der Herpetofauna Eur.: 63; Lanza, Caputo, Nascetti, and Bullini, 1995, Monogr. Mus. Reg. Sci. Nat. Torino, 16: 10; Lanza, 1997, in Gasc et al. (eds.), Atlas Amph. Rept. Eur.: 44).

Imperial Salamander (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 34).

Scented Cave Salamander (Arnold, 2002, Rept. Amph. Eur., Ed. 2: 52).

Distribution

Central and south-eastern Sardinia in the provinces of Nuoro and Oristano, Italy.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Italy

Endemic: Italy

Comment

See discussion of relevant literature and distribution by Lanza, 1997, in Gasc et al. (eds.), Atlas Amph. Rept. Eur.: 44-45. Lanza, 1999, in Grossenbacher and Thiesmeier (eds.), Handbuch Rept. Amph. Eur., 4(1): 155-163, provided an extensive review of biology. Nöllert and Nöllert, 1992, Die Amph. Eur.: 239, provided a brief account and polygon map.Arnold, 2002, Rept. Amph. Eur., Ed. 2: 52, provided a brief account, figure, and map, as did Obst in Engelmann, Fritzsche, Günther, and Obst, 1993, Lurche Kriechtiere Eur.: 107. Raffaëlli, 2007, Les Urodèles du Monde: 317, provided a brief account, photograph, and map. Lanza, Pastorelli, Laghi, and Cimmaruta, 2006 "2005", Atti Mus. Civ. Stor. Nat. Trieste, 52 (Suppl.): 5-135, provided a review. All literature prior to 2007, presumably references Speleomantes sarrabusensis as part of Speleomantes imperialis. See statement of geographic range, habitat, and conservation status in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 641. van der Meijden, Chiari, Mucedda, Carranza, Corti, and Veith, 2009, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 51: 399-404, reported on a genetically divergent population, possibly a distinct species, from the Lake Omodeo region. See detailed account (in the sense of including Speleomantes sarrubusensis) by Lanza, Pastorelli, Laghi, and Cimmaruta, 2007, in Lanza et al. (eds.), Fauna d'Italia, 42 (Amph.): 171-174. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 440, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. Chiari, van der Meijden, Mucedda, Lourenço, Hochkirch, and Veith, 2012, PLoS One, 7(3: e32332): 1–15, reported on biogeography. Sparreboom, 2014, Salamanders Old World: 157–158, reviewed the biology, characteristics, distribution, reproduction, and conservation of the species. Speybroeck, Beukema, Bok, and Van Der Voort, 2016, Field Guide Amph. Rept. Brit. Eur.: 108–109, provided a brief account and distribution map. See Dufresnes, 2019, Amph. Eur., N. Afr., & Middle East: 185, for brief summary of identifying morphology and biology, a range map, as well as a photograph. Corti, Biaggini, Nulchis, Cogoni, Cossu, Frau, Mulargia, Lunghi, and Bassu, 2022, Acta Herpetol., Firenze, 17: 125–133, reported on the range in Sardinia. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 1028–1029, provided an account summarizing systematics, morphology, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map).

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For access to general information see Wikipedia
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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
For access to available specimen data for this species, from over 350 scientific collections, go to Vertnet.