Salamandra Garsault, 1764

Dubois, Alain & Bour, Roger, 2010, The nomenclatural status of the nomina of amphibians and reptiles created by Garsault (1764), with a parsimonious solution to an old nomenclatural problem regarding the genus Bufo (Amphibia, Anura), comments on the taxonomy of this genus, and comments on some nomina created by Laurenti (1768), Zootaxa 2447, pp. 1-52 : 29

Salamandra Garsault, 1764

The plate 673 of Garsault (1764) shows a common salamander of Europe (family SALAMANDRIDAE Goldfuss, 1820 ), under the nomen Salamandra or “Salamandre”. No specific nomen is associated to this generic nomen. The nomen Salamandra , borrowed from the Latin, was in common use in pre-Linnaean times to designate all urodelans or just the terrestrial species of this group. Its first use after 1758 was by Gronovius (1763: 12), but his “ Salamandra ” is an anoplonym, having been published in a work which is not binominal for species ( Dubois & Raffaëlli 2009: 64). The generic nomen in current use is Salamandra Laurenti, 1768 , the nucleospecies of which, by subsequent designation of Fitzinger (1843: 33) is Salamandra maculosa Laurenti, 1768 , a doxisonym of Lacerta salamandra Linnnaeus, 1758 (see Dubois & Raffaëlli 2009: 64). As remarked by Welter-Schultes & Klug (2009: 238), replacement of Salamandra Laurenti, 1768 by Salamandra Garsault, 1764 does not raise any nomenclatural problem and should not be avoided or opposed.

Three taxa of the genus Salamandra occur in France ( Raffaëlli 2007), all being members of the subgenus Salamandra (see Dubois & Raffaëlli 2009) and subspecies of Salamandra salamandra ( Linnaeus, 1758) : Salamandra salamandra terrestris (Bonnaterre, 1789) , in most of the country, Salamandra salamandra fastuosa ( Schreiber, 1912) in the western Pyrenees, and Salamandra salamandra salamandra ( Linnaeus, 1758) in the southern Alps. In the Paris region, only the former of these three subspecies occurs, and the pattern of coloration shown in plate 673 of Garsault (1764), with long clear spots on both sides on the back, tending to the formation of two longitudinal bands, is a common one in this subspecies ( Thorn & Raffaëlli 2001: 179; Raffaëlli 2007: 154). Therefore, we hereby designate the nominal species Salamandra terrestris Bonnaterre, 1789 (onymotope: Saint-Geniez-d’Olt, Aveyron, France), as nucleospecies (type-species) of Salamandra Garsault, 1764 , the now valid nomen of this genus (for a clarification of the nomenclatural status of this nominal species, see Dubois & Raffaëlli 2009: 27). This change in authorship and date of this generic nomen has no other nomenclatural consequence, and all the taxa included in this genus ( Dubois & Raffaëlli 2009: 68–69) keep their nomina unchanged, but the nominal-complexes of most of them must change as the author’s name and date must now be placed between parentheses.