Hynobius tsuensis Abé, 1922

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

Hynobius tsuensis Abé, 1922, Zool. Mag., Tokyo, 34: 331. Syntypes: Not designated, but including ZIHU 1016a, 2 others not traced. ZIHU 1016a considered "type" by Sato, 1937, Bull. Biogeogr. Soc. Japan, 7: 36, and considered holotype by Brame and Gorham, 1972, Checklist Living & Fossil Salamand. World (Unpubl. MS): 17. Types lost during WWII according to Niwa, Nishikawa, Matsui, Kanamori, and Kuro-o, 2023, Zootaxa, 5339: 222, who designated KUHE 58656 neotype. Type locality: Southern Tsushima, Japan; given as "Izuhara, Tsushima", Japan by Sato, 1937, Bull. Biogeogr. Soc. Japan, 7: 36. Neotype from "Shimobaru (34°13' N latitude, 129°15' E longitude, alt. 183 m above sea level), Izuhara, Tsushima City (Shimojima of Tsushima Islands), Nagasaki Prefecture", Japan. 

Hynobius bicolor Dunn, 1923, Proc. California Acad. Sci., Ser. 4, 12: 28. Holotype: CAS 26447, by original designation. Type locality: "Tsushima, South Island, in the Korean straits", Japan. Synonymy by Dunn, 1923, Proc. Am. Acad. Arts Sci., 58: 490; Okada, 1934, Copeia, 1934: 18.

Hynobius nebulosus tsuensisMori, 1928, Chosen Nat. Hist. Soc. J., 6: 2.

Hynobius tsuensisOyama, 1930, Copeia, 1930: 156.

Hynobius (Hynobius) tsuensisNakamura and Ueno, 1963, Japan. Rept. Amph. Color: 7. Dubois and Raffaëlli, 2012, Alytes, 28: 77-161.

English Names

Tsushima Salamander (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 28; Goris and Maeda, 2004, Guide Amph. Rept. Japan: 34).

Distribution

Tsushima Islands (excluding the southern part of Kamijima, former Toyotama-machi), in Nagasaki Prefecture, western Japan, at elevations of 25 m to 270 m. 

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Japan

Endemic: Japan

Comment

In the Hynobius nebulosus group. See comments by Oyama, 1930, Copeia, 1930: 155-156, regarding its taxonomic history. Thorn and Raffaëlli, 2000, Salamand. Ancien Monde: 52-54, and Raffaëlli, 2007, Les Urodèles du Monde: 48, provided brief accounts. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 66–67, provided a brief account, photo, and map. Sparreboom, 2014, Salamanders Old World: 95–96, reviewed the biology, characteristics, distribution, reproduction, and conservation of the species. Niwa, Kuro-o, and Nishikawa, 2021, Zool. Sci., Tokyo, 38: 259–266 (mtDNA; cyt b) and Niwa, Yoshikawa, Nishikawa, and Matsui, 2022, Curr. Herpetol., Kyoto, 41: 125–131 (microsatellite data) found that nominal Hynobius tsuensis is composed of two independent lineages. These authors did not investigate the application of the two species names in synonymy. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 90–92, provided an account, summarizing systematics, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map), and also noting that the name Hynobius tagoi might be available for the second lineage. Niwa, Nishikawa, Matsui, Kanamori, and Kuro-o, 2023, Zootaxa, 5339: 201–236, subsequently removed Hynobius tagoi from synonymy. 

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