Cynops pyrrhogaster (Boie, 1826)

Common Names

Japanese Newt (Cochran, 1961, Living Amph. World: 69; Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 31).

Japanese Firebelly Newt (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 35).

Japanese Fire-bellied Newt (Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 31; Goris and Maeda, 2004, Guide Amph. Rept. Japan: 42).

Shau Tau Kok Newt (Cynops shataukokensis: Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 35).

Hiroshima Fire-bellied Newt (Cynops pyrrhogaster: Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 413).

Tamba Fire-bellied Newt (Cynops sasayamae: Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 416).

Kagoshim Fire-bellied Newt (Cynops immaculiventris: Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 420).

Distribution

Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu Islands and many nearby smaller islands, Japan.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Japan

Endemic: Japan

Comment

Highton, 2000, in Bruce et al., Biol. Plethodontid Salamanders: 224, discussed previously published allozyme data and on that basis suggested that possibly two species with a narrow hybrid zone would be found on Kyushu. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 148–149, provided a brief account, photo, and map.  Hayashi and Matsui, 1988, Zool. Sci., Tokyo, 5: 1121–1136, noted that allozyme 149–151 is not consistent with previously morphologically recognized races. Goris and Maeda, 2004, Guide Amph. Rept. Japan: 42–44, provided an account, map, and photograph. Tominaga, Matsui, Yoshikawa, Nishikawa, Hayashi, Misawa, Tanabe, and Ota, 2013, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 66: 654–667, delimited four mtDNA matrilines in Japan: Northern (Tohuoku and Kanto districts of the northern half of Honshu), Southern (southern and western Kyushu), Central (Chubu, northern Kinki, and eastern Chugoku districts of Honshu), and Western (southern Kinki and western Chugoku on Honshu, Shikoku and northeastern and central Kyushu). Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 151–152, provided accounts under his nomenclatural interpretation of these mtDNA data. Given the inherent controversy surrounding species-level conclusions based solely on a dataset notorious for its on occasion reflecting hybridization and introgression rather than phylogeny, and because Tominaga et al. (2013) did not take the step to providing a Linnaean framework even though this work-group certainly contains competent taxonomists, my inclination is to report on Raffaelli's taxonomy (which may well be correct) but retain this record under Cynops pyrrhogater sensu lato pending the application of nuDNA data. I first report the numbered major mtDNA clade of Tominaga et al. (2013), followed by the lettered species recognized by Raffaelli: 1) Northern (Tohuoku and Kanto districts of the northern half of Honshu): a) Cynops sp. "Kanto", b) Cynops sp. "Tohuko"; 2) Southern (southern and western Kyushu): a) Cynops immaculiventris; 3) Central (Chubu, northern Kinki, and eastern Chugoku districts of Honshu): a) Cynops sasayamae (and likely b) Cynops sp. "Atsumi"); 4) Western (southern Kinki and western Chugoku on Honshu, Shikoku and northeastern and central Kyushu): a) Cynops pyrrhogaster (sensu stricto). Sparreboom, 2014, Salamanders Old World: 193–196, reviewed the biology, characteristics, distribution, reproduction, and conservation of the species. Tominaga, Matsui, and Kokuryo, 2015, Curr. Herpetol., Kyoto, 34: 19–27, confirmed the existence of the four lineages on the basis of additional molecular evidence and provided evidence for a fifth lineage, termed the "southern Izu lineage" that may have developed on an island that subsequently joined Honshu. Tominaga, Yoshikawa, Matsui, Nagata, and Sato, 2022, Biol. J. Linn. Soc., 137: 651–666, reported on the correspondence (or not) of morphology, allozymes, mtDNA, and nuDNA. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 412–427, provided accounts, summarizing systematics, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map); a number of species are recognized out of nominal Cynops pyrrhogaster in this work, at least some of which should have been recognized long ago on the basis of existing evidence. But, while I am digesting all of the underlying publications that are the source of Raffaelli's taxonomy (written 19 Jan 2023), I am leaving nominal Cynops pyrrhogaster alone, although it clearly is not a single species under any definition of that term. Tran, Tominaga, Pham, and Nishikawa, 2024, Ecol. Informatics, 79 (102443): 1–12, report on mtDNA phylogeography and ecological niche modeling in the face of climate change. 

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