Salamandra rubra Sonnini de Manoncourt and Latreille, 1801b

Pyron, R. Alexander & Beamer, David A., 2022, A nomenclatural and taxonomic review of the salamanders (Urodela) from Holbrook’s North American Herpetology, Zootaxa 5134 (2), pp. 151-196 : 173

Salamandra rubra Sonnini de Manoncourt and Latreille, 1801b

Holbrook (1840:123, pl. 27) offered a modestly detailed account of the Red Salamander ( Pseudotriton ruber ), with a rough illustration by J. H. Richard. Holbrook (1842e:35, pl. 9) reprinted the description essentially verbatim with a new drawing by J. Queen which was not noticeably improved. In the second edition, Holbrook noted that he considers Salamandra subfusca Green, 1818 and S. maculata Green, 1818 synonyms of S. rubra , as even Green had doubted their distinctiveness (see Pyron and Beamer 2020). He also lists S. rubriventris Green, 1818 and S. fusca Green, 1818 as synonyms. The former is correct, though the latter is actually a senior subjective synonym of his Triton niger ( Green, 1818) and S. maculo-quadrata Holbrook, 1840 (see above). In both editions, Holbrook erroneously attributed the original description to Daudin (1803), as the exact publication year of many books from Paris (and thus their nomenclatural priority) were long misunderstood due to the unorthodox calendar of the French Revolution (see Harper 1940). We were unable to locate any specimens of this species associated with Holbrook. Duméril et al. (1854:90) stated that the MNHN held specimens from Holbrook, which we could not locate and were not listed in the catalog or among Holbrook’s donations in the “Inventaire” ( Roux-Estéve 1976) or “Catalogue taxonomique des Amphibiens.”