Salamandra tigrina Green, 1825a:116

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 : 162

Salamandra tigrina Green, 1825a:116

Holbrook (1838b:109, pl. 25) gave a brief account of the Tiger Salamander ( Ambystoma tigrinum ), with reference to Green’s (1825a) original description and Harlan’s (1835) expansion thereof. As with many plates in the first edition, T.W. Hill’s illustration was very basic and not particularly accurate or life-like. The account was reprinted by Holbrook (1842e:79, pl. 26) with relatively few changes as “ Triton tigrinus ,” and a more detailed drawing by J.W. Richards of an apparently preserved specimen with legs askew. In both versions of the account, Holbrook noted the species’ range as New Jersey to Massachusetts; the extensive distribution of this taxon in the eastern and central U.S. was not known at the time. Other populations from Louisiana, Ohio, and Tennessee were considered a separate species ( Salamandra ingens Green 1831 ) by Holbrook (1842e). Other synonyms such as Proteus neocaesariensis Green, 1818 were not discussed by Holbrook (see Pyron and Beamer 2020).

Several Tiger Salamanders attributed to Holbrook are in the ANSP and MCZ. In the former, ANSP 1322 (listed as a female from New Jersey) was cataloged around the same time as Holbrook’s other specimens but is actually an Ambystoma maculatum (see above). In the latter, a series of 20 specimens originally cataloged as lots MCZ A-245 (14 specimens) and MCZ A-246 (6 specimens) putatively origination from Charleston, S.C. were entered 20 February 1862, donated by Agassiz. The lot MCZ A-245 also contained two Hemidactylium scutatum and three Notophthalmus viridescens , later re-cataloged in 1875 as MCZ A-1199 (and MCZ A- 120827 in June 1995), and MCZ A-1122 (and A-125873– 4 in September 1996), respectively. This was recorded by subsequent catalog notes in pencil suggesting that two series of three from lot MCZ A-245 were later exchanged, and that only 8 of the original 14 specimens remained. This also implies the existence of a third specimen of H. scutatum , which might be the missing MCZ A-4400. The remaining 14 A. tigrinum specimens were re-catalogued as MCZ A-245–6 and A-99284–95 on 17–18 January 1980, and MCZ A-99289–90 were cleared and stained in January 1985. Examination revealed 12 specimens under the numbers A-245–246, A-99284–99288, and A-99291–99295, ranging from larvae to transformed adults. We did not examine the cleared and stained specimens MCZ A-99289–90, but they are listed as extant in the catalog as of 1985.