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

Lyciasalamandra luschani (Steindachner, 1891)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Salamandridae > Subfamily: Salamandrinae > Genus: Lyciasalamandra > Species: Lyciasalamandra luschani

Molge Luschani Steindachner, 1891, Sitzungsber. Akad. Wiss. Wien, Phys. Math. Naturwiss. Kl., 100: 306. Syntypes: NHMW; NHMW 15077 designated lectotype by Eiselt, 1956, Ann. Naturhist. Mus. Wien, 61: 101-103. Type locality: "Tortukar (Dodurga-Assary)", Lycia, southeastern Anatolia, Türkiye.

Salamandra luschani — Boulenger, 1892, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 6, 9: 74.

Molge luschani — Bedriaga, 1892, Congr. Internatn. Zool., Moscow, Part 1: 242.

Mertensiella luschani — Wolterstorff, 1925, Abh. Ber. Mus. Nat. Heimatkd. Magdeburg, 4: 244.

Mertensiella luschani luschani — Pieper, 1963, Senckenb. Biol., 44: 442.

Salamandra (Mertensiella) luschani — Özeti, 1967, Copeia, 1967: 287.

Mertensiella luschani — Thorn, 1968, Salamand. Eur. Asie Afr. Nord: 182.

Mertensiella luschani basoglui Baran and Atatür, 1980, Sci. Rep. Fac. Sci. Ege Univ., Izmir, 248: 4. Holotype: SZE 24/1978-1, by original designation. Type locality: "Nadarlar Köyü-Kas (Antalya)", Anatolia, Türkiye. Synonymy with Mertensiella luschani helverseni by Moravec, 1997, in Böhme et al. (eds.), Herpetol. Bonn.: 284, but this was implicitly not accepted by Veith and Steinfartz, 2004, Salamandra, 40: 76.

Salamandra luschani — Weisrock, Macey, Uğurtaş, Larson, and Papenfuss, 2001, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 18: 434.

Lyciasalamandra luschani — Veith and Steinfartz, 2004, Salamandra, 40: 71.

Lyciasalamandra basoglui — Vences, Sanchez, Hauswaldt, Eikelmann, Rodriguez, Carranza, Donaire-Barroso, Gehara, Helfer, Lötters, Werner, Schulz, and Steinfartz, 2014, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 73: 211.

Common Names

Luschan's Salamander (Arnold and Burton, 1978, Field Guide Rept. Amph. Brit. Eur.: 34; 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; Speybroeck, Beukema, Dufresnes, Fritz, Jablonski, Lymberakis, Martínez-Solano, Razzetti, Vamberger, Vences, Vörös, and Crochet, 2020, Amphibia-Reptilia, 41: 169).

Lycian's Salamander (Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 32).

Lycian Salamander (Stumpel-Rienks, 1992, Ergänzungsband Handbuch Rept. Amph. Eur., Trivialnamen der Herpetofauna Eur.: 51).

Luschan's Salamander (Lyciasalamandra luschani luschani: Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 235).

Kas Salamander (Lyciasalamandra luschani basoglui: Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 236).

Distribution

Found from Patara to Demre, southwestern Anatolia (Türkiye), 0–400 m elevation; Kastellorizo Island, Greece.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Greece, Türkiye

Comment

See comment under Mertensiella. Obst in Engelmann, Fritzsche, Günther, and Obst, 1993, Lurche Kriechtiere Eur.: 74–76, provided a brief account, figure, and map. Raffaëlli, 2007, Les Urodèles du Monde: 162–163, provided brief accounts by subspecies, figure, and map. Valakos, Pafilis, Sotiropoulos, Lymberakis, Maragou, and Foufopoulos, 2008, Amph. Rept. Greece: 143-146, provided an account. 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: 603. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 208–210, provided brief accounts by subspecies, photographs, and map. Sparreboom, 2014, Salamanders Old World: 249–251, reviewed the biology, characteristics, distribution, reproduction, and conservation of the species. Speybroeck, Beukema, Bok, and Van Der Voort, 2016, Field Guide Amph. Rept. Brit. Eur.: 73–74, provided a brief account and distribution map. See Dufresnes, 2019, Amph. Eur., N. Afr., & Middle East: 174, for brief summary of identifying morphology and biology, a range map, as well as a photograph (see p. 210 for photographs and map of subspecies). Yaşar, Çiçek, Mulder, and Tok, 2021, North-West. J. Zool., Romania, 17(e201512): 232–275, discussed and grid-mapped the range in Türkiye. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 186–212, provided subspecies accounts, summarizing systematics, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map). The taxonomic status of the population basoglui appears controversial (DRF). Cattaneo, Cattaneo, and Grano, 2024, Life on Islands, 2, Volume 2: 38–58, summarized the range in the Dodecanese Islands, provided a record for Kastellorizo I., Greece. Arslan, Akdağ, Yaşar, Olivier, Benedetti, Morelli, and Çiçek, 2024, Nature Sci. Data, 11(292): 1–5, linked out (https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.6781260.v1) to a database of traits and localities in Turkey.

External links:

Please note: these links will take you to external websites not affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History. We are not responsible for their content.

For access to general information see Wikipedia
For additional sources of general information from other websites search Google
For access to relevant technical literature search Google Scholar
For images search CalPhoto Images and Google Images
To search the NIH genetic sequence database, see GenBank
For additional information see AmphibiaWeb report
For information on conservation status and distribution see the IUCN Redlist
For related information on conservation and images as well as observations see iNaturalist