Neurergus derjugini (Nesterov, 1916)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Salamandridae > Subfamily: Pleurodelinae > Genus: Neurergus > Species: Neurergus derjugini

Rhithrotriton derjugini Nesterov, 1916, Annu. Mus. Zool. Acad. Sci. Petrograd, 21: 1. Syntypes: ZISP, according to Brame and Gorham, 1972, Checklist Living & Fossil Salamand. World (Unpubl. MS): 54, but including animal figured in original publication; BMNH collection records note BMNH 1946.9.5.90–92 (formerly 1917.5.3.8–10) as syntypes, presumably on exchange from ZISP. . Type locality: "montibus Surkeu" (= Surkev Mountains, Kurdistan), Iran. 

Rhithrotriton derjugini var. microspilotus Nesterov, 1916, Annu. Mus. Zool. Acad. Sci. Petrograd, 21: 2, 5. Type(s): Including animal figured in the original publication; possibly ZISP, but not seen by Nikolskii, 1918, Fauna Rossii, Zemnovodnye: 198. Type locality: "montibus Auromana" (= Avroman-Dagh), Balch, Iraq, and Tawale, Province Kurdistan, Iran.

Triton crocatus forma microspilota — Wolterstorff, 1926, Zool. Anz., 67: 2.

Triton crocatus forma derjugini — Wolterstorff, 1926, Zool. Anz., 67: 1–6. 

Triton crocatus microspilotus — Bolkay, 1927, Glasn. Zemaljskog Muz. Bosni Hercegov., 39: 67.

Neurergus derjugini — Terentjev, 1930, Trudy Leningrad. Obshchestvo Estestvoispytateleĭ, 40: 59.

Neurergus crocatus microspilotus — Schmidt, 1939, Field Mus. Nat. Hist. Publ., Zool. Ser., 24: 52.

Triturus crocatus derjugini — Bodenheimer, 1944, Istanbul Univ. Fen. Fak. Mec., Seri B, 9: 7.

Triturus crocatus microspilotus — Bodenheimer, 1944, Istanbul Univ. Fen. Fak. Mec., Seri B, 9: 7.

Neurergus microspilotus — Schmidtler and Schmidtler, 1975, Salamandra, 11: 93.

Neurergus (Neurergus) microspilotus — Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2009, Alytes, 26: 66.

Neurergus derjugini derjugini — Schneider and Schneider, 2011, Herpetozoa, Wien, 23: 3.

Neurergus derjugini microspilotus — Schneider and Schneider, 2011, Herpetozoa, Wien, 23: 3.

Neurergus (Neurergus) derjugugini derjugini — Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 396.

Neurergus (Neurergus) derjugugini microspilotus — Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 397.

Common Names

Kurdistan Newt (Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 32; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 35).

Kordestan Newt (Baloutch and Kami, 1995, Amph. Iran: 98).

Derjugin's (Kordestan) Mountain Newt (Safaei-Mahroo, Ghaffari, Fahimi, Broomand, Yazdanian, Najafi-Majd, Hosseinian Yousefkhani, Rezazadeh, Hosseinzadeh, Nasrabadi, Mashayekhi, Motesharei, Naderi, and Kazemi, 2015, Asian Herpetol. Res., 6: 267). 

Derjugin's Mountain Newst (Safaei-Mahroo, Ghaffari, and Niamir, 2023, Zootaxa, 5279: 39).

Yellow-spotted Mountain Newt (Salehi, Akmali, and Sharifi, 2019, Herpetol. J., 29: 37). 

Kurdistan Newt (Neurergus derjugugini derjugini: Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 396)

Avroman Dagh Newt (Neurergus derjugugini microspilotus: Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 397). 

Small-spotted Mountain Newt (Safaei-Mahroo, Ghaffari, and Niamir, 2023, Zootaxa, 5279: 40).

Distribution

Montane western Kurdistan, West Azarbaijan, and northwestern Kermanshah provinces, Iran, 1300–1400 m elevation; adjacent northeastern Iraq.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Iran, Iraq

Comment

Thorn and Raffaëlli, 2000, Salamand. Ancien Monde: 346–347, and Baloutch and Kami, 1995, Amph. Iran: 98–100, provided accounts. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 140–141, provided a brief account, photo, and map.  Sharifi, Rastegar-Pouyani, Akmali, and Narenji, 2008, Russ. J. Herpetol., 15: 169–172, discussed geographic variation of morphology. See photograph, map, description of geographic range and habitat, and conservation status in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 604. Özdemir, Üzüm, Avcı, and Olgun, 2009, Herpetologica, 65: 280–291, suggested that Neurergus kaiseri is the sister taxon of Neurergus microspilotus. Schneider and Schneider, 2011, Herpetozoa, Wien, 23: 3–20, discussed the taxonomy of this species, transferred Rhithrotriton derjugini from the synonymy of Neurergus crocatus (where it had been placed by Nikolskii, 1918, Fauna Rossii, Zemnovodnye: 197, and Wolterstorff, 1926, Zool. Anz., 67: 1–6) and recognized two nominal subspecies. Schneider and Schneider, 2013, Herpetozoa, Wien, 26: 27–38, reported on geographic variation, provided new localities, and confirmed the synonymy of Neurergus microspilotus. Safaei-Mahroo, Ghaffari, Fahimi, Broomand, Yazdanian, Najafi-Majd, Hosseinian Yousefkhani, Rezazadeh, Hosseinzadeh, Nasrabadi, Mashayekhi, Motesharei, Naderi, and Kazemi, 2015, Asian Herpetol. Res., 6: 257–290, reported on distribution and conservation status in Iran. Bozorgi, Kiabi, Kami, Ahmadzadeh, Mohammadi, and Alizadeh, 2015, Russ. J. Herpetol., 22: 103–106, discussed the range of Neurergus derjugini derjugini in Kordestan Province, Iran. Sparreboom, 2014, Salamanders Old World: 258–260, reviewed the biology, characteristics, distribution, reproduction, and conservation of the species. Barabanov and Litvinchuk, 2015, Russ. J. Herpetol., 22: 107–115, provided a new record in Iran, mapped the range, and discussed the potential range. Rancilhac, Goudarzi, Gehara, Hemami, Elmer, Vences, and Steinfartz, 2019, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 133: 189–197, discussed molecular phylogenetics within Neurergus and suggested that this species may contain unnamed lineages. Salehi, Akmali, and Sharifi, 2019, Herpetol. J., 29: 37–47, reported on the mtDNA landscape genetics of the species in Iran and Irag. See Dufresnes, 2019, Amph. Eur., N. Afr., & Middle East: 149, for brief summary of identifying morphology and biology (including a description of the cause of its imminent extinction), a range map, as well as a photograph. Afroosheh, Rödder, Mikulíček, Akmali, Vaissi, Fleck, Schneider, and Sharifi, 2019, J. Zool. Syst. Evol. Res., 57: 580–590, also found two geographically constrained mtDNA lineages. Malekoutian, Sharifi, and Vaissi, 2020, Ecol. Evol., 10: 2661–2676, reported on mtDNA phylogeography and Pleistocene refugia in the mid-Zagros Range in Iran and Iraq. Karimi, Ghaffari, and Kaboodvandpour, 2021, Salamandra, 57: 541–546, discussed habitat requirements in western Iran. Heydari, Hosseinian Yousefkhani, and Faizi, 2021, J. Wildl. Biodivers., Arak, 5: 54–67, discussed habitat, population density, and mapped known localities in Iran. Mawlodi, Rastegar-Pouyani, Rastegar-Pouyani, and Rostami, 2022, Russ. J. Herpetol., 29: 191–198l provided new localities (Mariwan and Banch counties) for Kurdistan Province, Iran, provided a range map, and discussed the taxonomic status of this species. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 396–399, provided subspecies accounts, summarizing systematics, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map). Safaei-Mahroo, Ghaffari, and Niamir, 2023, Zootaxa, 5279: 1–112, provided for Iran an identification key including this species, photographs, habitat and conservation threats, a review of the literature, discussion of nomenclature and systematics, as well as dot and modeled distribution maps. Hosseinian Yousefkhani, Shafiei Bafti, Rezazadeh Mashizi, and Moeinadini, 2024, North-West. J. Zool., Romania, 20(e242501): 85–89, discussed the possible effects of climate change on the range in Iran and provided a current dot map for that country. Safaei-Mahroo, Ghaffari, and Anderson, 2025, In Heatwole, Das, and King (eds.), Amphibian Biology. Volume 11, Part 8 (Status of Conservation and Decline of Amphibians: Eastern Hemisphere): 195–233, provided photographs and reported on the conservation, morphology, systematics, and distribution of the species in Iran. Koster, Polanen, Avcı, Bogaerts, Bozkurt, Goudarzi, Hemami, Olgun, Pasmans, Steinfartz, Üzüm, de Visser, France, Theodoropoulos, and Wielstra, 2025, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 211(108386): 1–9, discussed molecular phylogenetics and discordance among phylogenetic methods within the species and subspecies of Neurergus, confirming the subspecies status of Neurergus derjugini microspilotus.   

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