A new species of the newt genus Hypselotriton (Amphibia, Urodela, Salamandridae) from Jiangxi Province, southeastern China

By

Jiang, Zhihao
Huang, Song
Fan, Qiangyong
Cheng, Lin
Gong, Yan-An
Cui, Zhangbo
Zhang, Tierui
Lan, Wenjun
Zou, Zhian
Huang, Xuanzhi
Raffaelli, Jean
Chen, Jinmin

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2024

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

1208

Pages

331--346

Subjects

Black patches , fire-bellied newts , geographical isolation , Morphology , phylogenetics , taxonomy

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1208.126092

 

Abstract

A new newt species, Hypselotriton huanggangensissp. nov., is described based on nine specimens collected from Huanggangshan Mountains, Yanshan County, Jiangxi, China. Morphologically, the new species is characterized by the combination of nine external characters: (1) obvious black patches with clear boundaries on the whole body; (2) ground color of the dorsal body tan; (3) ground color of venter bright orange; (4) skin rough; (5) vertebral ridge weak; (6) fingers and toes overlapping when forelimb and hindlimb adpressed towards each other along body; (7) postocular orange spot absent; (8) small white warty glands around the eye; (9) two discontinuous longitudinal lines formed by white warty glands from neck to lateral parts of tail. Molecularly, the new species forms an independent clade with strong support in the phylogenetic trees of the genus based on the mitochondrial locus of NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 (ND2) gene fragments. The new species distinctly differs from H. fudingensis by differences in its body measurements, vertebral ridge, dorsal black patches, and ventral black patches. Furthermore, the new species and H. fudingensis are geographically isolated by a series of high mountain ranges, including the Wuyishan and Jiufengshan Mountains. The number of Hypselotriton species is now 11.