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
	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

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

Hynobius sonani (Maki, 1922)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Hynobiidae > Subfamily: Hynobiinae > Genus: Hynobius > Species: Hynobius sonani

Salamandrella sonani Maki, 1922, Zool. Mag., Tokyo, 34: 636. Type(s): Not designated although likely TIU according to Brame and Gorham, 1972, Checklist Living & Fossil Salamand. World (Unpubl. MS): 16; now lost; by implication of statements by Maeda and Matsui, 1990, Frogs Toads Japan, Ed. 2, that collection destroyed in WWII, and according to Fei, Hu, Ye, and Huang, 2006, Fauna Sinica, Amph. 1: 151. NMNS 19872 designated neotype by Nishikawa, Ju, Jheng, Lin, Hara, Lai, Lin, and Lue, 2021, Zootaxa, 4981: 194. Type locality: "Mt. Noko, Taichushu, altitude about 10,000 feet", Taiwan, China, according to Maki, 1928, Annot. Zool. Japon., 11: 130. Given as "Mt. Moritaka, Formosa" according to Gee and Boring, 1929, Peking Nat. Hist. Bull., 4: 18. Neotype from "Zhuifen, Nantou, Taiwan".

Hynobius sonani — Dunn, 1923, Proc. Am. Acad. Arts Sci., 58: 479.

Pseudosalamandra sonani — Tago, 1929, Zool. Mag., Tokyo, 41: 431. Based

Hynobius sonani — Okada, 1934, Copeia, 1934: 18.

Hynobius (Poyarius) sonani — Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2012, Alytes, 28: 77–161. Based on specimens of Hynobius formosanus. See comment.

Hynobius (Makihynobius) sonani — Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2012, Colored Atlas Chinese Amph. Distr.: 48. Based on specimens of Hynobius formosanus. See comment.

Poyarius sonani — Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 407. Presumably based on Hynobius formosanus. See comment.

English Names

Taichu Salamander (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 28).

Sonan's Hynobiid (Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 26).

Sonan's Salamander (Lue, Tu, and Hsiang, 1999, Atlas Taiwan Amph. Rept.: 26).

Yushan Salamander (Sparreboom, 2014, Salamanders Old World: 89).

Distribution

Known from 2100 to 2900 m elevation on the central mountain range of Taiwan.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Taiwan

Endemic: Taiwan

Comment

In the Hynobius naevius group. Redescribed by Maki, 1928, Annot. Zool. Japon., 11: 129–131. Reviewed by Sato, 1941, Trans. Nat. Hist. Formosa, 31: 114–124. Nishikawa, Ju, Jheng, Lin, Hara, Lai, Lin, and Lue, 2021, Zootaxa, 4981: 188–196, resolved a terrible nomenclatural problem based on early confusions of specimens that rendered most publication using the name Hynbius sonani for populations of Hynobius formosus, and vice versa. By discussing the historical problem and designating neotypes they resolved the nomenclatural problem, but, basically almost all literature addressing these salamanders after the 1940s had the identifications backwards. See accounts by Ye, Fei, and Hu, 1993, Rare and Economic Amph. China: 36 (as Hynobius sonani), by Thorn and Raffaëlli, 2000, Salamand. Ancien Monde: 91–93 (as Hynobius formosanus), and Lue, Tu, and Hsiang, 1999, Atlas Taiwan Amph. Rept.: 26–27 (as Hynobius sonani). See Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China, for figure, brief account (as Hynobius formosanus), and distribution map. Fei, Hu, Ye, and Huang, 2006, Fauna Sinica, Amph. 1: 151–154, provided an account (as Hynobius formosanus). See brief account (as Hynobius formosanus) by Raffaëlli, 2007, Les Urodèles du Monde: 43. See illustration, map, description of geographic range and habitat, and conservation status in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 551 (as Hynobius formosanus). Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2010, Colored Atlas of Chinese Amph.: 47, provided a brief account (as Hynobius formosanus) including photographs and an illustration of specimens. Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2012, Colored Atlas Chinese Amph. Distr.: 48, provided an account (as Hynobius formosanus), photographs, and map for China. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 59, provided a brief account (as Hynobius formosanus), photo, and map. Sparreboom, 2014, Salamanders Old World: 89–90, reviewed the biology, characteristics, distribution, reproduction, and conservation of the species (as Hynobius formosanus). See account, photograph, and map by Fei and Ye, 2016, Amph. China, 1: 183–185 (as Hynobius sonani). Guo, Yang, and Li, 2009, Colored Illust. Amph. Rept. Taiwan: 59, provided a brief account (as Hynobius formosanus), photographs, and map. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 69–70, provided an account, summarizing systematics, life history, and distribution (including a polygon map).

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To search the NIH genetic sequence database, see GenBank
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 additional information specific to China see Amphibia China
For access to available specimen data for this species, from over 350 scientific collections, go to Vertnet.