Lissotriton
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Lissotriton | |
|---|---|
.jpg) | |
| Lissotriton vulgaris (smooth newt) | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Amphibia |
| Order: | Urodela |
| Family: | Salamandridae |
| Subfamily: | Pleurodelinae |
| Genus: | Lissotriton Bell, 1839[1] |
| Type species | |
| Lissotriton vulgaris | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
| |
Lissotriton is a genus of newts native to Europe and parts of Asia Minor. As most other newts, they are aquatic as larvae and during breeding time but live in terrestrial, humid environments over the rest of the season.
These rather small species used to be included in genus Triturus, but phylogenetic analyses demonstrated that genus as paraphyletic.[1][2] In the following, the name Lissotriton, originally introduced by Thomas Bell in 1839, was reinstated for the small-bodied species related to the type species Lissotriton vulgaris (the smooth newt).[1][3]
Their exact phylogenetic placement within the newts (subfamily Pleurodelinae) is still uncertain.[1]
Currently, ten species are listed in Amphibian Species of the World[1] – the rank of some of these as species or subspecies is however controversial:
- Lissotriton boscai (Lataste, 1879) – Bosca's newt
- Lissotriton graecus (Wolterstorff, 1906) – Greek newt
- Lissotriton helveticus (Razoumovsky, 1789) – Palmate newt
- Lissotriton italicus (Peracca, 1898) – Italian newt
- Lissotriton kosswigi (Freytag, 1955) – Kosswig's smooth newt
- Lissotriton lantzi (Wolterstorff, 1914) – Caucasian smooth newt
- Lissotriton maltzani (Boettger, 1879) – Portuguese smooth newt
- Lissotriton montandoni (Boulenger, 1880) – Carpathian newt
- Lissotriton schmidtleri (Raxworthy, 1988) – Schmidtler's smooth newt
- Lissotriton vulgaris (Linnaeus, 1758) – Smooth newt
Phylogeny
Gallery
Lissotriton vulgaris, male during breeding time
Lissotriton helveticus, female (top) and male (bottom) during breeding season.
Lissotriton helveticus, larva
Lissotriton boscai, underside
