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

Notophthalmus Rafinesque, 1820

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Salamandridae > Subfamily: Pleurodelinae > Genus: Notophthalmus

3 species

Notophthalmus Rafinesque, 1820, Ann. Nat., Lexington, 1: 5. Type species: Triturus (Diemictylus) miniatus Rafinesque, 1820, by monotypy. Proposed originally as a subgenus of Triturus.

Diemictylus Rafinesque, 1820, Ann. Nat., Lexington, 1: 5. Type species: Triturus (Diemictylus) viridescens Rafinesque, 1820, by monotypy. Proposed originally as a subgenus of Triturus. Synonymy by Baird, 1850 "1849", J. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Ser. 2, 1: 284 (first revisor).

Tristella Gray, 1850, Cat. Spec. Amph. Coll. Brit. Mus., Batr. Grad.: 23. Type species: Salamandra symmetrica Harlan, 1825, by monotypy. Suggested as a junior synonym of Notophthalmus.

Notophthalmia — Gray, 1850, Cat. Spec. Amph. Coll. Brit. Mus., Batr. Grad.: 22. Erroneous spelling. Placed on Official Index of Rejected and Invalid Generic Names in Zoology by Opinion 635, Anonymous, 1962, Bull. Zool. Nomencl., 19: 152-155.

Diemyctylus — Hallowell, 1856, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 8: 11. Incorrect subsequent spelling or emendation. Placed on Official Index of Rejected and Invalid Generic Names in Zoology by Opinion 635, Anonymous, 1962, Bull. Zool. Nomencl., 19: 152-155.

Notophthalma — Gray, 1858, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1858: 138. Incorrect subsequent spelling or unjustified emendation. Placed on Official Index of Rejected and Invalid Generic Names in Zoology by Opinion 635, Anonymous, 1962, Bull. Zool. Nomencl., 19: 152-155.

Rafinus Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2009, Alytes, 26: 57. Type species: Diemyctylus miniatus meridionalis Cope, 1880, by original designation. Coined as a subgenus of Notophthalmus.

Common Names

Spotted Newts (Jordan, 1878, Man. Vert. North. U.S., Ed. 2: 191).

Eastern Newts (Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 174; Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 8; Liner and Casas-Andreu, 2008, Herpetol. Circ., 38: 31; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 29 Highton, Bonett, and Jockusch, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 30).

Newts (Liner, 1994, Herpetol. Circ., 23: 12).

Red-spotted Newts (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 35; Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 25).

Distribution

Eastern North America southward through eastern Texas (USA) to northern Veracruz, eastern San Luis Potosí, and Puebla, Mexico.

Comment

Notophthalmus selected over Diemictylus under rule of first revisor. Both Notophthalmus and Diemictylus named as subgenera of Triturus. See Smith, 1953, Herpetologica, 9: 95–99, for a summary of the nomenclatural history. Reilly, 1990, Herpetologica, 46: 51–59, reported on genic variation and phylogeny, suggesting a tree of Notophthalmus viridescens (Notophthalmus perstriatus + Notophthalmus meridionalis). Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2009, Alytes, 26: 57, implied Notophthalmus perstriatus and Notophthalmus meridionalis, to be in Rafinus on the basis of phylogenetic propinquity, but on page 67 of the same work stated Notophthalmus perstriatus to be a member of the subgenus Notophthalmus, not Rafinus, implying a paraphyletic subgenus Notophthalmus. See species accounts by Petranka, 1998, Salamand. U.S. Canada: 446–462. Weisrock, Papenfuss, Macey, Litvinchuk, Polymeni, Uğurtaş, Zhao, Jowkar, and Larson, 2006, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 41: 855–857, recovered Notophthalmus as the sister taxon of Taricha on the basis of a DNA sequence study. Powell, Collins, and Hooper, 2011, Key Herpetofauna U.S. & Canada, 2nd Ed.: 13, provided a key to the species. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 325–332, provided species accounts, summarizing systematics, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map).

Contained taxa (3 sp.):

Notophthalmus meridionalis (Cope, 1880)

Notophthalmus perstriatus (Bishop, 1941)

Notophthalmus viridescens (Rafinesque, 1820)

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