Lissotriton Bell, 1839

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Salamandridae > Subfamily: Pleurodelinae > Genus: Lissotriton
10 species

Lophinus Rafinesque, 1815, Analyse Nat.: 78. Type species: Not designated. Nomen nudum. Included here due to the presence of Lophinus Gray, 1850 (attributed to Rafinesque) in this synonymy.

Meinus Rafinesque, 1815, Analyse Nat.: 78. Type species: Pelonectes boscai Lataste, 1879, by subsequent designation of Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2009, Alytes, 26: 53. Nomen nudum.

Palmitus Rafinesque, 1815, Analyse Nat.: 78. Type species: Lacerta helvetica Razoumowsky, 1789, by subsequent designation of Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2009, Alytes, 26: 29. Nomen nudum and type species not mentioned as part of original concept.

Geotriton Bonaparte, 1832, Iconograph. Fauna Ital., 2 (Fasc. 1): unnumbered. Type species: Salamandra exigua Laurenti, 1768 by monotypy (= Lacerta vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758). Coined as a subgenus of Triton. Synonymy with Triturus by Dubois, 1984, Alytes, 3: 103, and with Lissotriton by implication subsequently. Placed on the Official Index of Rejected and Invalid Generic Names in Zoology and for the Principle of Priority, but not the Principle of Homonymy by Opinion 1866, Anonymous, 1997, Bull. Zool. Nomencl., 54: 72-74.

Lissotriton Bell, 1839, Hist. Brit. Rept.: 132. Type species: Salamandra punctata Latreille, 1800, by subsequent designation of Fitzinger, 1843, Syst. Rept.: 34. Synonymy (with Lophinus) by Gray, 1850, Cat. Spec. Amph. Coll. Brit. Mus., Batr. Grad.: 25 Synonymy (with Triton) by Duméril, Bibron, and Duméril, 1854, Erp. Gen., 9: 121.

Lophinus Gray, 1850, Cat. Spec. Amph. Coll. Brit. Mus., Batr. Grad.: 27. Type species: Salamandra punctata Latreille, 1800, by subsequent designation of Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2009, Alytes, 26: 28, who made the synonymy. Credited in the original to Rafinesque.

Palaeotriton Bolkay, 1927, Zool. Anz., 72: 287. Bolkay, 1927, Glasn. Zemaljskog Muz. Bosni Hercegov., 39: 63. Type species: Lacerta vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758 by subsequent designation of Thorn, 1968, Salamand. Eur. Asie Afr. Nord: 190. Preocuppied by Paleotriton Fitzinger, 1837. Coined as a subgenus of Triton.

Meinus Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2009, Alytes, 26: 52. Type species: Pelonectes boscai Lataste, 1879, by original designation. Coined as a subgenus of Lissotriton.

Common Names

Alpine Newts (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 36).

Distribution

England, Scandinavia, continental Europe, Asia Minor around the Black Sea and to the western portions of the Caspian Sea, eastward to the Ural Mountains of Russia.

Comment

Titus and Larson, 1995, Syst. Biol., 44: 125-151, suggested that Triturus (in the older sense of including Lissotriton and Mesotriton) was paraphyletic with respect to other genera, with the Triturus alpestris group most closely related to Notophthalmus, Taricha, Cynops, and Paramesotriton, and Triturus karelini more closely related to Euproctus and Neurergus. Steinfartz, Hwang, Tautz, Öz, and Veith, 2002, Amphibia-Reptilia, 23: 419-431, provided evidence of the polyphyly of Triturus, with the Triturus vulgaris group being outside of a group composed of Euproctus, Neurergus, and the Triturus cristatus group. Jehle and Faber, 2003, in Grossenbacher and Thiesmeier (eds.), Handbuch Rept. Amph. Eur., 4(IIA): 411-419, provided a general discussion (of Triturus in the sense of including Lissotriton and Mesotriton). Removed from the synonymy of Triturus by García-París, Montori, and Herrero, 2004, Fauna Iberica, 24: 233; García-París, Monton, and Alonso-Zarazaga, 2004, in García-París et al. (eds.), Fauna Iberica, 24: 593 (as Lissotriton), and Litvinchuk, Zuiderwijk, Borkin, and Rosanov, 2005, Amphibia-Reptilia, 26: 317 (in error as Lophinus), where it had been placed (under Triton) by Strauch, 1870, Mem. Acad. Imp. Sci. St. Petersbourg, Ser. 7, 16 (4): 30. Litvinchuk, Zuiderwijk, Borkin, and Rosanov, 2005, Amphibia-Reptilia, 26: 317. Weisrock, Papenfuss, Macey, Litvinchuk, Polymeni, Uğurtaş, Zhao, Jowkar, and Larson, 2006, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 41: 855-857, found Lissotriton (as the Triturus vulgaris group + Triturus boscai) as the sister taxon of Ichthyosaura (as Triturus alpestris). Thorn and Raffaëlli, 2000, Salamand. Ancien Monde: 244-305, provided accounts. Steinfartz, Vicario, Arntzen, and Caccone, 2007, J. Exp. Zool., 308B: 139-142, reported on the phylogenetics of Lissotriton, and considered it to form the sister taxon of (Neurergus + Ommatotriton) + (Calotriton + Triturus). Sparreboom, 2014, Salamanders Old World: 221–240, reviewed the biology, characteristics, distribution, reproduction, and conservation of the species.  Pabijan, Zieliński, Dudek, Stuglik, and Babik, 2017, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 116: 1–12, discussed the continuum of genetic leakage among lineages of Lissotriton, noting nine lineages of which Lissotriton vulgaris vulgaris (South), Lissotriton vulgaris vulgaris (North), Lissotriton vulgaris ampelensis (their usage), and Lissotriton vulgaris meridionalis they regarded as having a future of becoming reintegrated. Wielstra, Canestrelli, Cvijanovíc, Denoël, Fijarczyk, Jablonski, Liana, Naumov, Olgun, Pabijan, Pezzarossa, Popgeorgiev, Salvi, Si, Sillero, Sotiropoulos, Zieliński, and Babik, 2018, Amphibia-Reptilia, 39: 252–259, provided range maps for the species of Europe. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 339–357, provided accounts, summarizing systematics, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map). 

Contained taxa (10 sp.):

Lissotriton boscai (Lataste, 1879)
Lissotriton graecus (Wolterstorff, 1906)
Lissotriton helveticus (Razoumovsky, 1789)
Lissotriton italicus (Peracca, 1898)
Lissotriton kosswigi (Freytag, 1955)
Lissotriton lantzi (Wolterstorff, 1914)
Lissotriton maltzani (Boettger, 1879)
Lissotriton montandoni (Boulenger, 1880)
Lissotriton schmidtleri (Raxworthy, 1988)
Lissotriton vulgaris (Linnaeus, 1758)

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