Lissotriton kosswigi (Freytag, 1955)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Salamandridae > Subfamily: Pleurodelinae > Genus: Lissotriton > Species: Lissotriton kosswigi

English Names

Kosswig's Smooth Newt (Wielstra, Canestrelli, Cvijanovíc, Denoël, Fijarczyk, Jablonski, Liana, Naumov, Olgun, Pabijan, Pezzarossa, Popgeorgiev, Salvi, Si, Sillero, Sotiropoulos, Zieliński, and Babik, 2018, Amphibia-Reptilia, 39: 254). 

Distribution

Northwestern Turkey on the Black Sea Coast from the Bosporus to the vicinity of Zonguidak.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Turkey

Endemic: Turkey

Comment

Başoğlu and Özeti, 1973, Türkiye Amphibileri: 44-50, and Özeti and Yilmaz, 1994, Türkiye Amfibileri: 68-79, provided accounts for the Turkish populations (as Triturus vulgaris kosswigi and Triturus vulgaris schmidtleri). Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2009, Alytes, 26: 40, discussed their reasoning for recognizing this as a species distinct from Lissotriton vulgaris. See comment under Lissotriton vulgarisRaffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 123, provided a brief account, photo, and map. Wielstra, Bozkurt, and Olgun, 2015, ZooKeys, 484: 11–23, provided a map and discussed the species range. Range and relationships of this member of Lissotriton vulgaris complex discussed by Pabijan, Zieliński, Dudek, Stuglik, and Babik, 2017, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 116: 1–12. Wielstra, Canestrelli, Cvijanovíc, Denoël, Fijarczyk, Jablonski, Liana, Naumov, Olgun, Pabijan, Pezzarossa, Popgeorgiev, Salvi, Si, Sillero, Sotiropoulos, Zieliński, and Babik, 2018, Amphibia-Reptilia, 39: 252–259, reviewed the taxonomic literature and provided a range map. See Dufresnes, 2019, Amph. Eur., N. Afr., & Middle East: 124, for brief summary of identifying morphology and biology, a range map, as well as a photograph. Yaşar, Çiçek, Mulder, and Tok, 2021, North-West. J. Zool., Romania, 17(e201512): 232–275, discussed and grid-mapped the range in Turkey. Skorinov, Bozkurt, Olgun, and Litvinchuk, 2022, Acta Zool. Acad. Sci. Hungaricae, 68: 261–276, discussed identification of this species from Lissotriton vulgaris and Lissotriton schmidtleri employing ventral and lateral spot patterns. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 351, provided an account, summarizing systematics, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map). 

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