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
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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

Salamandra infraimmaculata Martens, 1885

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Salamandridae > Subfamily: Salamandrinae > Genus: Salamandra > Species: Salamandra infraimmaculata

Salamandra maculosa var. infraimmaculata Martens, 1885, Sitzungsber. Ges. Naturforsch. Freunde Berlin, 1884: 195. Type(s): Not stated although likely originally in ZMB. NHMW 15501 designated neotype by Eiselt, 1958, Abh. Ber. Naturkd. Magdeburg, 10: 131. Type locality: "Syrien"; restricted by neotype designation by Eiselt, 1958, Abh. Ber. Naturkd. Magdeburg, 10: 131, to "Bscherreh (Becharreh) in nördlichen Libanon".

Salamandra semenovi Nesterov, 1916, Annu. Mus. Zool. Acad. Sci. Petrograd, 21: 21. Holotype: ZISP. Type locality: "montibus Kurdistani persio-turcici altitudine 5000 pedum supra maris uperfciem" = Sjah (Siyah) Güves, 1500 meters elevation, mountain land of Kurdistan. Synonymy by Wolterstorff, 1932, Bl. Aquar. Terrarienkd., Stuttgart, 43: 43.

Salamandra maculosa var. orientalis Wolterstorff, 1925, Abh. Ber. Mus. Nat. Heimatkd. Magdeburg, 4: 235. Syntypes: 12 specimens, including MM NV423, which was considered "typus" (not a valid lectotype by implication) by Wolterstorff, 1932, Bl. Aquar. Terrarienkd., Stuttgart, 43: 42; destroyed in 1945, W.W.II. NHMW 15501 designated neotype by Eiselt, 1958, Abh. Ber. Naturkd. Magdeburg, 10: 131. Type localities: "Balkanhabinsel und Kleinasiens"; restricted by lectotype designation of Wolterstorff, 1932, Bl. Aquar. Terrarienkd., Stuttgart, 43: 42; to "Gulek Boghaz (Pyles ciliciennes) bei Adana". Restricted by neotype designation by Eiselt, 1958, Abh. Ber. Naturkd. Magdeburg, 10: 131, to "Bscherreh (Becharreh) in nördlichen Libanon". (Not Salamandra maculosa orientalis Prazák, 1898)

Salamandra maculosa subsp. semenovi — Wolterstorff, 1925, Abh. Ber. Mus. Nat. Heimatkd. Magdeburg, 4: 241.

Salamandra maculosa forma orientalis — Wolterstorff, 1932, Bl. Aquar. Terrarienkd., Stuttgart, 43: 41.

Salamandra salamandra semenovi — Wolterstorff, 1932, Bl. Aquar. Terrarienkd., Stuttgart, 43: 43.

Salamandra salamandra orientalis — Bodenheimer, 1944, Istanbul Univ. Fen. Fak. Mec., Seri B, 9: 4. Status questioned.

Salamandra salamandra infraimmaculata — Mertens, 1948, Senckenb. Biol., 28: 187 (placed Salamandra salamandra orientalis in synonymy of Salamandra salamandra infraimmaculata).

Salamandra infraimmaculata — Gasser, 1978, Arch. Zool. Exp. Gen., 119: 636.

Salamandra infraimmaculata immaculata — Joger and Steinfartz, 1995, in Llorente et al. (eds.), Scientia Herpetol.: 33.

Salamandra infraimmaculata orientalis — Joger and Steinfartz, 1995, in Llorente et al. (eds.), Scientia Herpetol.: 33.

Salamandra infraimmaculata semenovi — Joger and Steinfartz, 1995, in Llorente et al. (eds.), Scientia Herpetol.: 33.

Salamandra (Oriandra) infraimmaculata infraimmaculata — Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2009, Alytes, 26: 69.

Salamandra (Oriandra) infraimmaculata orientalis — Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2009, Alytes, 26: 69.

Salamandra (Oriandra) infraimmaculata semenovi — Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2009, Alytes, 26: 69.

Salamandra (Oriandra) semenovi — Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 202.

English Names

Spot-bellied Salamander (Safaei-Mahroo, Ghaffari, Fahimi, Broomand, Yazdanian, Najafi-Majd, Hosseinian Yousefkani, Rezazadeh, Hosseinzadeh, Nasrabadi, Mashayekhi, Motesharei, Naderi, and Kazemi, 2015, Asian Herpetol. Res., 6: 268).

Near-eastern Fire Salamander (Sparreboom, 2014, Salamanders Old World: 320).

Near-eastern Fire Salamander (Salamandra infraimmaculata infraimmaculata: Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 220).

Turkish Fire Salamander (Salamandra infraimmaculata orientalis: Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 222).

Kurdish Salamander (Salamandra semenovi: Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 223).

Semenov's Salamander (Salamandra infraimmaculata semenovi: Safaei-Mahroo, Ghaffari, and Niamir, 2023, Zootaxa, 5279: 146).

Distribution

South-central and coastal southern Turkey south along the coast through Syria and Lebanon to northern Israel; isolated populations in southwestern and eastern Turkey, northern Iraq, and northwestern Iran (Kordestan and Kermanshah provinces).

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Iran, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey

Comment

Joger and Steinfartz, 1995, in Llorente et al. (eds.), Scientia Herpetol.: 33–36, discussed and recognized Salamandra infraimmaculata for the former East Mediterranean populations of Salamandra salamandra. Başoğlu and Özeti, 1973, Türkiye Amphibileri: 30–35, provided an account for the Turkish populations (as Salamandra salamandra). Thorn and Raffaëlli, 2000, Salamand. Ancien Monde: 163–187, provided an account. Özeti and Yilmaz, 1994, Türkiye Amfibileri: 43–50, provided an account for Turkish populations (as subspecies of Salamandra salamandra). Hraoui-Bloquet, Sadek, Sindaco, and Venchi, 2002, Zool. Middle East, 27: 36, provided definitive records for Lebanon. Baloutch and Kami, 1995, Amph. Iran: 102–103, provided an account (for Salamandra salamandra semenovi) for Iran. See statement of geographic range, habitat, and conservation status in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 642. Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2009, Alytes, 26: 35, discussed the murky taxonomy of populations within this nominal species. Leviton, Anderson, Adler, and Minton, 1992, Handb. Middle East Amph. Rept.: 140, gave a brief account of Salamandra infraimmaculata semenovi (as Salamandra salamandra semenovi). Goldberg, Pearlson, Nevo, and Degani, 2009, S. Am. J. Herpetol., 4: 268–274, reported on sequence divergence among populations in Israel, correlated with ecological divergence. Bogaerts, Sparreboom, Pasmans, Almasri, Beukema, Shehab, and Amr, 2013, Salamandra, 49: 87–96, reported on the range and life history in Syria. Böhme, Hartmann, Fleck, and Schöttler, 2013, Russ. J. Herpetol., 20: 66–72, reported on pattern variability in Salamandra infraimmaculata semenovi and characters to distinguish Salamandra infraimmaculata from relatives in areas of approach. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 201–202, provided brief accounts by subspecies, photographs, and map and (p. 202) recognized Salamandra semenovi as a distinct species although the rationale for this novelty is unclear. Vences, Sanchez, Hauswaldt, Eikelmann, Rodriguez, Carranza, Donaire-Barroso, Gehara, Helfer, Lötters, Werner, Schulz, and Steinfartz, 2014, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 73: 208–214, demonstrated via nu- and mtDNA analysis that recognition of Salamandra semenovi as a species rendered Salamandra infraimmaculata paraphyletic. Should authors want to recognize that population at the rank of species, they will have to dismantle the complex that is currently referred to Salamandra infraimmaculata. Sparreboom, 2014, Salamanders Old World: 320–323, reviewed the biology, characteristics, distribution, reproduction, and conservation of the species. Safaei-Mahroo, Ghaffari, Fahimi, Broomand, Yazdanian, Najafi-Majd, Hosseinian Yousefkani, Rezazadeh, Hosseinzadeh, Nasrabadi, Mashayekhi, Motesharei, Naderi, and Kazemi, 2015, Asian Herpetol. Res., 6: 257–290, reported on distribution and conservation status in Iran. Sinai, Segev, Weil, Oron, Merilä, Templeton, Blaustein, Greenbaum, and Blank, 2019, Conserv. Genetics, 20: 875–889, reported on landscape genetics in northern Israel. See Dufresnes, 2019, Amph. Eur., N. Afr., & Middle East: 163, for brief summary of identifying morphology and biology, a range map, as well as a photograph (see p. 207 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 Turkey. Candan, 2022, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 16 (1: e307): 136–147, provided a new record from Ivriz, Halkapınar, Konya Province, Turkey, and discussed morphometrics and niche modelling of the species. Kurnaz, 2022, J. Wildl. Biodivers., Arak, 6: 82–96, mapped the current range in Turkey and modeled the current and future range of the species under different climatic regimes. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 220–225, provided subspecies (and nominal Salamandra semonovi) 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.

External links:

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For additional information see AmphibiaWeb report
For information on conservation status and distribution see the IUCN Redlist
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.