Onychodactylus Tschudi, 1838

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Hynobiidae > Subfamily: Onychodactylinae > Genus: Onychodactylus
12 species

Onychodactylus Tschudi, 1838, Classif. Batr.: 57, 92. Type species: Onychodactylus schlegeli Tschudi, 1838 (= Salamandra japonicus Houttuyn, 1782), by monotypy.

Dactylonyx Bonaparte, 1839, Iconograph. Fauna Ital., 2 (Fasc. 26): unnumbered. Manuscript name credited to Bibron and provided as a synonym of Onychodactylus Tschudi.

Onychopus Duméril, Bibron, and Duméril, 1854, Erp. Gen., 9: 113. Substitute name for Onychodactylus Tschudi, 1838.

Geomolge Boulenger, 1886, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1886: 416. Type species: Geomolge fischeri Boulenger, 1886, by monotypy. Synonymy by Dunn, 1918, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 62: 454.

English Names

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

Long-tailed Salamanders (Fei and Ye, 2016, Amph. China, 1: 190).

Distribution

From southern Far East Russia and nearby China to Wonsan in Korea and the mountains of Honshu and Shikoku Island, Japan.

Comment

Pyron and Wiens, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 61: 543–583, as part of a larger study confirmed the position of Onychodactylus as the sister taxon of remaining Hynobiidae. Poyarkov, Che, Min, Kuro-o, Yan, Li, Iizuka, and Vieites, 2012, Zootaxa, 3465:–1-106, revised the genus, redelimited the species, provided a molecular phylogeny, provided the species groups, and discussed the relevant literature, most of which referred populations to species which are restricted by these authors to much more restricted ranges. Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2012, Alytes, 28: 77–161, recognized placed Onychodactylus fisheri in the subgenus Geomolge and its sister taxon, including all of ther Onychodactylus in the subgenus Onychodactylus, following the results of Poyarkov et al., 2012. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 46–51, provided brief accounts, photos, and maps for the species. Sparreboom, 2014, Salamanders Old World: 107–122, reviewed the biology, characteristics, distribution, reproduction, and conservation of the species. See key, accounts, photographs, and maps for Chinese species by Fei and Ye, 2016, Amph. China, 1: 190–197. Suk, Lee, Bae, Lee, Poyarkov, Lee, and Min, 2018, MtDNA, Part A, 29: 650–658, reported on mtDNA haplotype distribution, suggesting multiple species under this name, and discussing its conservation management. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 28–41, provided detailed accounts of the species, including summaries of morphology, literature, distribution (including polygon maps), and conservation status. 

Contained taxa (12 sp.):

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