Yellow-spotted salamander

Yellow-spotted salamander
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Caudata
Family: Hynobiidae
Genus: Pseudohynobius
Species: P. flavomaculatus
Binomial name
Pseudohynobius flavomaculatus
Hu & Fei, 1978
Synonyms

Ranodon flavomaculatus

The yellow-spotted salamander (Pseudohynobius flavomaculatus) is a species of salamander in the Hynobiidae family, endemic to China, where it is known from Nanchuan in Chongqing (formerly Sichuan), Suiyang in Guizhou, Lichuan in Hubei, and Sangzhi in Hunan Province.[1][2] However, genetic methods have revealed cryptic species within the Liua–Pseudohynobius complex, and the actual distribution of the yellow-spotted salamander is turning out to be different. Only animals from Lichuan in Hubei and Sangzhi have been positively identified as being yellow-spotted salamanders,[3] whereas animals collected from Nanchuan were described as a new species, P. jinfo, by Wei et al. in 2009.[4]

The yellow-spotted salamander, known locally as fei,[2] has a total length of 158–189 mm (6.2–7.4 in) in males and 138–180 mm (5.4–7.1 in) in females.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Fei, Liang & Ye, Changyuan (2004). "Pseudohynobius flavomaculatus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2012.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 23 February 2013.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Fei, L. (1999). Atlas of Amphibians of China (in Chinese). Zhengzhou: Henan Press of Science and Technology. p. 32. ISBN 7-5349-1835-9.
  3. ↑ Zeng, X.; Fu, J.; Chen, L.; Tian, Y.; Chen, X. (2006). "Cryptic species and systematics of the hynobiid salamanders of the Liua–Pseudohynobius complex: Molecular and phylogenetic perspectives". Biochemical Systematics and Ecology 34 (6): 467–477. doi:10.1016/j.bse.2006.01.006.
  4. ↑ Wei, Gang; Jian-Li Xiong, Mian Hou, Xiao-Mao Zeng (2009). "A new species of hynobiid salamander (Urodela: Hynobiidae: Pseudohynobius) from Southwestern China". Zootaxa 2149: 62–68.

Further reading