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 meridionalis (Cope, 1880)

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

Diemyctylus miniatus meridionalis Cope, 1880, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 17: 30. Type(s): Not designated; ANSP 1104-1106 (Helotes, Texas, USA) and ANSP 15977 (San Diego, Texas, USA) catalogued as types according to Brame and Gorham, 1972, Checklist Living & Fossil Salamand. World (Unpubl. MS): 57. See comments by Tighe, 2022, Smithson. Contrib. Zool., 654: 66–67. Type locality: "Matamoros, Mexico . . . tributaries of the Medina River and southward"; restricted to "Matamoros, Tamaulipas", Mexico, by Stejneger and Barbour, 1933, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 3: 3; Smith and Taylor, 1948, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 194: 15.

Molge meridionalis — Boulenger, 1888, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 6, 1: 24; Boulenger, 1890, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1890: 326.

Diemyctylus viridescens meridionalis — Cope, 1889, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 34: 211.

Diemyctylus meridionalis — Strecker, 1908, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 21: 48.

Notophthalmus meridionalis — Stejneger and Barbour, 1917, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept.: 7.

Triturus meridionalis — Dunn, 1918, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 62: 452.

Diemictylus meridionalis — Wolterstorff, 1925, Abh. Ber. Mus. Nat. Heimatkd. Magdeburg, 4: 293.

Diemyctylus kallerti Wolterstorff, 1930, Abh. Ber. Mus. Nat. Heimatkd. Magdeburg, 6: 147. Holotype: MM N.V. 44/29, ex. nr. 1 (destroyed in W.W.II), according to Brame and Gorham, 1972, Checklist Living & Fossil Salamand. World (Unpubl. MS): 58. Type locality: "Angeblich Tampico-Mexiko. Wahrscheinlich aus dem gebirgigen Hinterland", Veracruz, Mexico. Synonymy (with Notophthalmus viridiscens) by Herre, 1936, Abh. Ber. Mus. Nat. Heimatkd. Magdeburg, 6: 196; with Notophthalmus meridionalis by Mecham, 1968, J. Herpetol., 2: 121–27.

Triturus kallerti — Smith, 1934, Am. Midl. Nat., 15: 407.

Notophthalmus viridescens kallerti — Herre, 1936, Abh. Ber. Mus. Nat. Heimatkd. Magdeburg, 6: 196.

Notophthalmus kallerti — Smith, 1953, Herpetologica, 9: 98.

Notophthalmus meridionalis meridionalis — Mecham, 1968, J. Herpetol., 2: 121–27.

Notophthalmus meridionalis kallerti — Mecham, 1968, J. Herpetol., 2: 121.

Notophthalmus (Rafinus) meridionalis — Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2009, Alytes, 26: 57, 66.

Notophthalmus (Rafinus) meridionalis meridionalis — Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 174.

Notophthalmus (Rafinus) meridionalis kallerti — Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 176.

Common Names

Texas Triton (Notophthalmus meridionalis: Yarrow, 1882, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 24: 22).

Texas Newt (Notophthalmus meridionalis: Strecker, 1915, Baylor Univ. Bull., 18: 54; Bishop, 1943, Handb. Salamanders: 82).

Black-spotted Newt (Notophthalmus meridionalis: Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 174; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 9; Liner, 1994, Herpetol. Circ., 23: 12; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 35; Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 8; Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 25; Liner and Casas-Andreu, 2008, Herpetol. Circ., 38: 31; Collins and Taggart, 2009, Standard Common Curr. Sci. Names N. Am. Amph. Turtles Rept. Crocodil., ed. 6: 15; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 29).

Black-spotted Newt (Notophthalmus meridionalis meridionalis: Conant, 1975, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. Cent. N. Am., Ed. 2: 259; Collins and Taggart, 2009, Standard Common Curr. Sci. Names N. Am. Amph. Turtles Rept. Crocodil., ed. 6: 15).

Southern Black-spotted Newt (Notophthalmus meridionalis meridionalis: Liner, 1994, Herpetol. Circ., 23: 12).

Texas Black-spotted Newt (Notophthalmus meridionalis meridionalis: Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 8; Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 25; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 20; 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).

Mexican Black-spotted Newt (Notophthalmus meridionalis kallerti: Liner, 1994, Herpetol. Circ., 23: 12; Liner and Casas-Andreu, 2008, Herpetol. Circ., 38: 31).

Distribution

Gulf coast of southern Texas (USA) into adjacent Tamaulipas, Mexico, south to northern Veracruz (Siberia), eastern San Luis Potosí, extreme northeastern Hidalgo, and Puebla, Mexico.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Mexico, United States of America, United States of America - Texas

Comment

See accounts by Mecham, 1968, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 74: 1–2, and Petranka, 1998, Salamand. U.S. Canada: 446–447. Mecham, 1968, J. Herpetol., 2: 121–127, noted that intergradation of the two subspecies is narrow and geographic variation within subspecies low, suggesting that different species are involved. Mendoza-Quijano, Mejenes-López, and Barragán-Torres, 2002, Bol. Soc. Herpetol. Mexicana, 10: 53–54, reported the species for the state of Hidalgo and discussed the overall distribution of the species. Raffaëlli, 2007, Les Urodèles du Monde: 139, provided brief accounts by subspecies (although he suggested that kallerti is likely a distinct species), figure, and map. Irwin and Judd, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 884–887, provided a detailed account that summarized the biology and conservation literature with special reference to the populations in the USA. 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: 605. Lemos-Espinal and Dixon, 2013, Amphibians and Reptiles of San Luis Potosí: 28–29, provided an account for San Luis Potosí, Mexico. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 174–175, provided brief accounts by subspecies, photographs, and range map. Carbajal-Márquez, Quintero-Díaz, and Martínez de la Vega, 2014, Herpetol. Rev., 45: 650, provided a range extension in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, and discussed the range and possible extirpation of the population at Agua Blanca, San Luis Potosí, Mexico. Altig and McDiarmid, 2015, Handb. Larval Amph. US and Canada: 132–133, provided an account of larval morphology and biology. Lemos-Espinal and Dixon, 2016, Amph. Rept. Hidalgo: 342–343, provided a brief account and map for Hidalgo, Mexico. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 331–332, provided subspecies accounta, summarizing systematics, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map). Bassett, 2023, Reptiles & Amphibians, 30(e18486): 1–18, provided an updated county distribution map for Texas, USA.

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For additional information see AmphibiaWeb report
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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.