Biology:Notophthalmus

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Short description: Genus of amphibians

Notophthalmus
Notophthalmus viridescensPCCA20040816-3983A.jpg
Notophthalmus viridescens
Scientific classification e
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Urodela
Family: Salamandridae
Subfamily: Pleurodelinae
Genus: Notophthalmus
Rafinesque, 1820
Type species
Notophthalmus viridescens

Notophthalmus is a genus of newts. There are three species. The name derives from Greek νῶτον (nōton), meaning "back", and Greek ὀφθαλμός (ophthalmos), meaning "eye".

Description

Notophthalmus species are East American newts similar in shape to the European newts (cf. Triturus). As a distinct characteristic of their own, both sexes have three to four large pores that lie in a row on the temple. The skin is smooth and soft in the water form and the tail is strongly flattened laterally. The back bar, on the other hand, is only narrow. Especially during the mating season, there is a clear sexual dimorphism: the males have very strong rut callosities consisting of 10 to 12 horn platelets on the inside of the hind legs, a strongly thickened tail as well as horny toe tips and a spherically arched cloaca. The latter is truncated conical in the females.[1]

Species

Species recognized as of October 2019:[2]

image Scientific name Common Name Distribution
Black-spotted Newt (Notophthalmus meridionalis), Santa Ana NWR, Hidalgo Co, TX, USA, (26.0821°N, 98.1354°W), 14 April 2016.jpg Notophthalmus meridionalis (Cope, 1880) black-spotted newt northeastern Mexico and southern Texas
Striped Newt, Osceola County Fl.jpg Notophthalmus perstriatus (Bishop, 1941) striped newt southern Georgia southward into central Florida
Eastern Newt (Notophthalmus viridescens) Walker Co. Texas. photo by W. L. Farr.jpg Notophthalmus viridescens (Rafinesque, 1820) eastern newt eastern North America.

References

  1. Beschreibung nach Günther Peters: Familie Salandridae – Echte Salamander und Molche in Urania Tierreich. Fische, Lurche, Kriechtiere. Urania Verlag, Berlin 2000; Seite 351.
  2. Frost, Darrel R. (2019). "Notophthalmus". American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA. http://research.amnh.org/vz/herpetology/amphibia/Amphibia/Caudata/Salamandridae/Pleurodelinae/Notophthalmus. 

Wikidata ☰ Q1971331 entry