Paramesotriton Chang, 1935

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Salamandridae > Subfamily: Pleurodelinae > Genus: Paramesotriton
15 species

Mesotriton Bourret, 1934, Annexe Bull. Gen. Instr. Publique, Hanoi, 1934: 83. Type species: Mesotriton deloustali Bourret, 1934, by monotypy. Preoccupied by Mesotriton Bolkay, 1927.

Paramesotriton Chang, 1935, Bull. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat. Paris, Ser. 2, 7: 95. Also published by Chang, 1935, Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 60: 425. Replacement name for Mesotriton Bourret, 1934.

Trituroides Chang, 1935, Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 60: 425. Type species: Cynops chinensis Gray, 1859, by monotypy. Synonymy (with Paramesotriton) by Freytag, 1962, Mitt. Zool. Mus. Berlin, 38: 451–459.

Allomesotriton Freytag, 1983, Zool. Abh. Staatl. Mus. Tierkd. Dresden, 39: 47. Type species: Trituroides caudopunctatus Liu and Hu, 1973, by original designation.

AllomesotritonPang, Jiang, and Hu, 1992, in Jiang (ed.), Collect. Pap. Herpetol.: 89. Treatment as a subgenus of Paramesotriton.

Karstotriton Fei and Ye, 2016, Amph. China, 1: 360. Type species: Paramesotriton zhijinensis Li, Tian, and Gu, 2008, by original designation. Coined as a subgenus of Paramesotriton.   

English Names

Warty Newts (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 35).

Distribution

Northern Vietnam and southwest-central and southern China.

Comment

See Freytag, 1962, Mitt. Zool. Mus. Berlin, 38: 451. Pang, Jiang, and Hu, 1992, in Jiang (ed.), Collect. Pap. Herpetol.: 89–100, reviewed the systematics of the group. Chan, Zamudio, and Wake, 2001, Copeia, 2001: 997–1009, suggested that Paramesotriton is the sister taxon of Pachytriton. Thorn and Raffaëlli, 2000, Salamand. Ancien Monde: 323–336, also provided accounts. Fei, Ye, Huang, Jiang, and Xie, 2005, in Fei et al. (eds.), Illust. Key Chinese Amph.: 44–45, provided a key to the species of China. Lü, Yuan, Pang, Yang, Yu, McGuire, Xie, and Zhang, 2004, Biochem. Genet., 42: 139–148, provided a phylogenetic analysis based on DNA sequence data. 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 Paramesotriton to be in a monophyletic group with Cynops and Pachytriton. Steinfartz, Vicario, Arntzen, and Caccone, 2007, J. Exp. Zool., 308B: 139–142, found Paramesotriton to form the sister taxon of Pachytriton, and together imbedded within a paraphyletic Cynops. Wu, Rovito, Papenfuss, and Hanken, 2009, Zootaxa, 2060: 59–68, provided a molecular phylogeny of the species in the genus. Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2009, Alytes, 26: 48, partitioned out Laotriton to render Paramesotriton monophyletic, and recognized two subgenera (Paramesotriton and Allomesotriton). Gu, Wang, Chen, Tian, and Li, 2012, Zootaxa, 3150: 59–68, found Paramesotriton to be monophyletic, the sister taxon of Laotriton, and the subgenera to be monophyletic as well. Yuan, Zhao, Jiang, Hou, He, Murphy, and Che, 2014, Asian Herpetol. Res., 5: 67–79, reported on the molecular phylogenetics of the taxon based on ND2 and its flanking tRNAs as well as providing a key to the species. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 158–166, provided brief accounts of the species, range maps, and photographs. Sparreboom, 2014, Salamanders Old World: 283–303, reviewed the biology, characteristics, distribution, reproduction, and conservation of the species. Fei and Ye, 2016, Amph. China, 1: 349–387, provided accounts, photographs, and range maps for the species of China. Luo, Wen, Gao, Zhou, and Zhou, 2021, Asian Herpetol. Res., 12: 188–200, reported on molecular systematics (mt and nuDNA) and biogeographic history of the species of the Paramesotriton caudopunctatus group (Paramesotriton caudopunctatus, Paramesotriton longliensis, Paramesotriton maolanensis, Paramesotriton wulingensis, and Paramesotriton zhijinensis) in Guizhou, China, resulting in the delimitation of two cryptic species (one in south-central Guizhou and the other in northwest-central Guizhou). Luo, Yan, Xiao, Zhou, Wang, Chen, Deng, Zhang, and Zhou, 2022, Zool. Res., Kunming, 43: 787–804, reported on molecular phylogenetics of the species within the genus and their biogeography, recovering good support for the monophyly of the genus and its two species groups. Yuan, Wu, Yan, Murphy, Papenfuss, Wake, Zhang, and Che, 2022, Zool. Res., Kunming, 43: 706–718, provided large molecular-based biogeographic studies of Paramesotriton, Cynops, and Pachytriton and discussed shared patterns. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 437–458, provided species accounts, summarizing systematics, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map).  

Contained taxa (15 sp.):

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