Ommatotriton Gray, 1850

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Salamandridae > Subfamily: Pleurodelinae > Genus: Ommatotriton
3 species

Ommatotriton Gray, 1850, Cat. Spec. Amph. Coll. Brit. Mus., Batr. Grad.: 29. Type species: Triton vittatus Gray, 1835 by monotypy.

Common Names

Banded Newts (van Riemsdijk, van Nieuwenhuize, Martínez-Solano, Arntzen, and Wielstra, 2018, Conserv. Genetics, 19: 250). 

Distribution

Coastal southeastern Türkiye, through western and northern Syria, through Lebanon to Israel and perhaps to northwestern Jordan; northern Iraq; northern Anatolia to the Caucasus of northeastern Asia Minor (northeastern Türkiye) to Georgia and extreme northwestern Iraq.

Comment

Removed from the synonymy of Triturus by García-París, Monton, and Alonso-Zarazaga, 2004, in García-París et al. (eds.), Fauna Iberica, 24: 602, and Litvinchuk, Zuiderwijk, Borkin, and Rosanov, 2005, Amphibia-Reptilia, 26: 317, where it had been placed (under Triton) by Duméril, Bibron, and Duméril, 1854, Erp. Gen., 9: 144. The latter authors apparently made the change in proof, as they neglected to change the name of the taxon named in the same publication from Triturus to Ommatotriton. Weisrock, Papenfuss, Macey, Litvinchuk, Polymeni, Uğurtaş, Zhao, Jowkar, and Larson, 2006, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 41: 855–857, on the basis of DNA sequence evidence found Ommatotriton (as the Triturus vittatus group) to be the sister taxon of Neurergus. Sparreboom, 2014, Salamanders Old World: 266–272, reviewed the biology, characteristics, distribution, reproduction, and conservation of the species. van Riemsdijk, Arntzen, Bogaerts, Franzen, Litvinchuk, Olgun, and Wielstra, 2017, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 114: 73–81, provided a phylogeographic analysis and revision. van Riemsdijk, van Nieuwenhuize, Martínez-Solano, Arntzen, and Wielstra, 2018, Conserv. Genetics, 19: 249–254, reported on DNA phylogenetics of the species and noted a hybrid population introduced into Catalonia, Spain (now being eradicated). Üzüm, Avcı, Olgun, Bülbül, Fahrbach, Litvinchuk, and Wielstra, 2019, Salamandra, 55: 131–134, provided external morphological characters to distinguish the three species. See comment on species taxonomy by Speybroeck, Beukema, Dufresnes, Fritz, Jablonski, Lymberakis, Martínez-Solano, Razzetti, Vamberger, Vences, Vörös, and Crochet, 2020, Amphibia-Reptilia, 41: 142–143. van Riemsdijk, Arntzen, Babik, Bogaerts, Franzen, Kalaentzis, Litvinchuk, Olgun, Wijnands, and Wielstra, 2022, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 167 (107361): 1–9, reported on the phylogenetics and phylogeography of the three species. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 388–393, provided species accounts, summarizing systematics, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map). Kalaentzis, Koster, Arntzen, Bogaerts, France, Franzen, Kazilas, Litvinchuk, Olgun, de Visser, and Wielstra, 2024 "2025", Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 203 (108237): 1–8, reported on the molecular phylogenetics of the three species and provided a polygon map of their distributions. 

Contained taxa (3 sp.):

Ommatotriton nesterovi (Litvinchuk, Zuiderwijk, Borkin, and Rosanov, 2005)
Ommatotriton ophryticus (Berthold, 1846)
Ommatotriton vittatus (Gray, 1835)

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