Ichthyosaura alpestris (Laurenti, 1768)

Common Names

Alpine Newt (Hellmich, 1962, Rept. Amph. Eur.: 39; Steward, 1969, Tailed Amph. Eur.: 39; Bruno, 1973, Natura, Milano, 64: 310; Arnold and Burton, 1978, Field Guide Rept. Amph. Brit. Eur.: 46; Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 33; Stumpel-Rienks, 1992, Ergänzungsband Handbuch Rept. Amph. Eur., Trivialnamen der Herpetofauna Eur.: 64; Kuzmin, 1999, Amph. Former Soviet Union: 170; Arnold, 2002, Rept. Amph. Eur., Ed. 2: 44).

Alpine Newt (Triturus alpestris alpestris: Steward, 1969, Tailed Amph. Eur.: 39).

Spanish Alpine Newt (Triturus alpestris cyreni: Steward, 1969, Tailed Amph. Eur.: 39).

Balkan Alpine Newt (Triturus alpestris lacusnigri: Steward, 1969, Tailed Amph. Eur.: 39).

Laurenti's Alpine Newt (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 36).

Black Lake Alpine Newt (Ichthyosaura alpestris lacusnigri: Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 361).

Bakony Alpine Newt (Ichthyosaura alpestris bakonyiensis: Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 362).

Cantabrian Alpine Newt (Ichthyosaura alpestris cyreni: Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 363).

Distribution

Western Ukraine and northern Romania through southern and central Poland, eastern Hungary, northern Slovakia, and central Germany to southern Denmark, northern, central, and eastern France, Belgium, Netherlands; isolated populations in northern Spain; introduced in southern England.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine

Introduced: United Kingdom

Comment

Prior to 2022 literature of Ichthyosaura alpestris, except as noted, includes what are now recognized as Ichthyosaura apuana, Ichthyosaura reiseri, and Ichthyosaura veluchiensis. See Breuil and Guillaume, 1985 "1984", Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 109: 377–389, and Breuil and Parent, 1988, Alytes, 7: 19–43, for subspecies. See account by Thorn and Raffaëlli, 2000, Salamand. Ancien Monde: 275–287. See also discussion of relevant literature and distribution by Zuiderwijk, 1997, in Gasc et al. (eds.), Atlas Amph. Rept. Eur.: 72–73. Lanza, 1983, Guide Reconoscimento Spec. Animali, Anf. Rett.: 70–73, reported on the Italian populations (now mostly assigned to Ichthyosaura apuana). Barbadillo-Escrivá, 1987, Guia INCAFO Anf. Rept. Peninsula Iberica: 110–114, provided an account for the Iberian populations. Arnold, 2002, Rept. Amph. Eur., Ed. 2: 44–45, provided a brief account (informative about subspecies), figure, and map as did Obst in Engelmann, Fritzsche, Günther, and Obst, 1993, Lurche Kriechtiere Eur.: 89–90. Nöllert and Nöllert, 1992, Die Amph. Eur.: 188–195, provided a brief account and polygon map. Denoël, Duguet, Džukić, Kalezić, and Mazzotti, 2001, J. Biogeograph., 28: 1271–1280, discussed the biogeography of paedomorphic populations. Arano and Astudillo, 1997, in Pleguezuelos (ed.), Dist. Biogeogr. Anf. Rep. Esp. Portugal: 115–116, provided a brief account, photograph, and detailed map for Iberia. Lever, 2003, Naturalized Rept. Amph. World: 228–229, discussed the introduced population in southern England. See account by Roček, Joly, and Grossenbacher, 2003, in Grossenbacher and Thiesmeier (eds.), Handbuch Rept. Amph. Eur., 4(IIA): 607–656. Naumov, 2005, Acta Zool. Bulgarica, 57: 391, provided records for Bulgaria. Pabijan and Babik, 2006, Mol. Ecol., 5: 2397–2407, reported on landscape genetics in southern Poland. Raffaëlli, 2007, Les Urodèles du Monde: 110–111, provided brief accounts by subspecies, photographs, and a map. Sotiropoulos, Eleftherakos, Džukić, Kalezić, Legakis, and Polymeni, 2007, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 45: 740–747, reported on mtDNA-inferred biogeographic patterns among populations. Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2009, Alytes, 26: 37–38, discussed the nominal subspecies. Ivanović, Sotiropoulos, Džukić, and Kalezić, 2009, Zoomorphology, 128: 157–167, reported on the noncorrespondence of skull morphology and molecular phylogeny. See detailed account (as Mesotriton alpestris) by Andreone, Tripepi, and Vanni, 2007, in Lanza et al. (eds.), Fauna d'Italia, 42 (Amph.): 254–265, for Italian population (now mostly assigned to Ichthyosaura apuana). Pabijan, Rożej, and Bonk, 2009, Herpetol. Notes, 2: 23–26, reported on an isolated population in central Poland. Speybroeck, Beukema, and Crochet, 2010, Zootaxa, 2492: 4–5, discussed misgivings about the subspecific taxonomy of this taxon. Thiesmeier and Schulte, 2010, Der Bergmolch: 1–159, monographed the species. van Delft, 2009, in Creemers and van Delft (eds.), Amph. Rept. Nederland: 96–104, provided a detailed discussion of this species (as Mesotriton alpestris) in the Netherlands. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 127–130, provided a brief set of accounts, photos, and map. Arntzen, King, Denoël, Martínez-Solano, and Wallis, 2016, Herpetol. J., 26: 49–56, discussed the origin of introduced populations in southern France as elucidated by mtDNA analysis. Speybroeck, Beukema, Bok, and Van Der Voort, 2016, Field Guide Amph. Rept. Brit. Eur.: 94–96, provided a brief account and distribution map. Luqman, Muller, Vaupel, Brodbeck, Bolliger, and Gugerli, 2018, Conserv. Genetics, 19: 673–685, reported on landscape genetics in Switzerland. Recuero, Buckley, García-París, Arntzen, Cogǎlniceanu, and Martínez-Solano, 2014, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 81: 207–220, reported on the phylogenetics/phylogeography of the species on the basis of nu and mtDNA and allozymes, suggesting multiple lineages. Although, pretty clearly, this is a species complex, these authors hesitated to recognize multiple species due to lack of assessment of gene flow among some critical populations. Sparreboom, 2014, Salamanders Old World: 213–217, reviewed the biology, characteristics, distribution, reproduction, and conservation of the species (see p. 201 for photographs and map of subspecies). See Speybroeck, Beukema, Dufresnes, Fritz, Jablonski, Lymberakis, Martínez-Solano, Razzetti, Vamberger, Vences, Vörös, and Crochet, 2020, Amphibia-Reptilia, 41: 143–144, for taxonomic comments. Kuzmin, 1999, Amph. Former Soviet Union: 170–174, and Kuzmin, 2013, Amph. Former Soviet Union, Ed. 2: 95–97, provided accounts for the former USSR. Novarini and Tagliapietra, 2020, Boll. Mus. Civ. Stor. Nat. Venezia, 71: 129–131, reported an introduced population in Venice, Italy, of unknown species identification in the current taxonomy. Vörös, Varga, Martínez-Solano, and Szabó, 2021, Acta Zool. Acad. Sci. Hungaricae, 67: 177–197, reported on mtDNA diversity (in the older more inclusive sense of Ichthyosaura alpestris) as evidence of Pleistocene refugia (including what are now Ichthyosaura reiseri populations) and redescribed and rediagnosed Ichthyosaura alpestris bakonyiensis. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 359–364, provided subspecies accounts, summarizing systematics, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map). Koster, Theodoropoulos, Beukema, Ambu, Babik, Canestrelli, Chiocchio, Cogǎlniceanu, Cvijanovíc, de Visser, Dufresnes, France, Hyseni, Jablonski, Kranželić, Lukanov, Martínez-Solano, Naumov, Pabijan, Salvi, Schmidt, Sotiropoulos, Stănescu, Stanković, Šunje, Szabolcs, Vacheva, Vörös, Zimić, and Wielstra, 2026, Mol. Ecol., 35(e70300): 1–19, recognized two subspecies with Ichthyosaura alpestris: Ichthyosaura alpestris alpestris (northwestern to southwestern France north to extreme southern Denmark, and east to central Romania) and Ichthyosaura alpestris cyreni (northern Spain). 

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• For related information on conservation and images as well as observations see iNaturalist