Salamandra Species & Subspecies Guide
By William Jones
The genus Salamandra consists of 6 species, 4 of which have defined subspecies. Information about these salamanders and their care in captivity can be found in the Salamandra caresheet. This guide has been created to show the wide range of appearance and geographical distribution among members of the genus. This document should not be used as an identification guide, because many subspecies and species have high levels of variation between populations, and even among different animals within the same population. Salamandra salamandra bernardezi is a textbook example of a subspecies with high variability among individual animals. The range maps give a rough indication of where each species/subspecies lives, but should not be used as an exact guide. Some subspecies have links to photos of "other forms", but many additional subspecies have other forms not shown.
| Name | Range | Photo |
|---|---|---|
Salamandra salamandra salamandraNominate subspecies. (Linneaus, 1758) |
Balkan penninsula, the Carpathians, eastern Germany, northern
Italy, and southeastern France. |
|
S. s. alfredschmidti |
Spain: Tendi Valley. |
|
S. s. almanzoris(Müller and Hellmich, 1935) |
Former glaciers of Gredos. (Laguna Grande de Gredos, Sierra
de Gredos). The salamanders of the Penalara lagoon in Madrid
show similar characteristics.
|
|
S. s. bejarae(Mertens and Müller, 1940)
|
Central mountain ranges of the Spanish peninsula,
(except in the highest points of the Sierra de Gredos, and in the
mountain ranges of Toledo). |
|
S. s. bernardezi(Gasser, 1978)
|
Asturias, northern and eastern Galicia. |
|
S. s. beschkovi(Obst, 1981)
|
Pirin mountains, Bulgaria. |
|
S. s. crespoi(Malkmus, 1983) |
Portugese Algarve. |
|
S. s. fastuosa(Eiselt, 1958) S. s. "bonnali". Now considered to be synonymous with S. s. fastuosa. |
Cantabria, the Basque region, northern Navarre, western and
central Pyrenees. |
|
S. s. gallaica(Nikolskii, 1918)
Variant coloration: Coimbra Portugal. |
Portugal, except the extreme south. Parts of Galicia, Leon,
Cantabrian mountains, and Catalonia. |
|
S. s. gigliolii(Eiselt and Lanza, 1956) |
South central and southern Italy. |
|
S. s. hispanica(Mertens and Muller, 1940) The validity of this subspecies is questionable. May be synonymous with S. s. terrestris. |
Montseny Province of Barcelona. |
|
S. s. longirostris(Joger and Steinfartz, 1994) |
Spain: Malaga and Cadiz provinces (Sierra de Ronda). |
|
S. s. morenica(Joger and Steinfartz, 1994) |
Spain: Sierra Morenica. |
|
S. s. terrestris(Eiselt, 1958)
Other forms: melanistic, erythristic, albino, high-yellow, orange. |
Most of France, northern and central Europe. |
|
S. s. werneri(Sochurek and Gayda, 1941) |
Greece: Mount Pelion. |
|
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|
Salamandra algira algiraNominate subspecies. (Nikolskii, 1918) |
Morocco and Algeria. |
|
S. algira tingitana(Donaire Barroso and Bogaerts, 2003) |
Morocco. Specimens from Ceuta produce juviparous young, and melanistic specimens occur frequently. Examples from the Middle Atlas mountains produce larvae. |
|
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|
|
|
Salamandra corsica(Veith, 1996) |
Corsica. |
|
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|
Salamandra infraimmaculata infraimmaculataNominate subspecies. (Joger and Steinfartz, 1995) |
Southern Israel to southern Turkey. |
|
S. i. orientalis(Joger and Steinfartz, 1995) |
Southern,central and eastern Turkey. |
|
S. i. semenovi(Joger and Steinfartz, 1995)
|
Kurdistan and Zagros Mountains. |
|
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|
Salamandra lanzai(Nascetti, Andreone, Capula, and Bullini, 1988) |
Italian western Alps. |
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Salamandra atra atraNominate subspecies. (Miksic, 1969) |
Alps and Dinaric Alps. |
|
S. atra aurorae(Trevisan, 1982) |
Asiago plateau, Italian Pre-Dolomites. |
|
S. atra pasubiensis(Bonato 2005) |
Mt. Pasubio and surrounding areas in the Venitian Alps of Italy |
|
Acknowledgement
Special thanks to Mike East for providing photographs and for adding and correcting the information in this guide.
References and Additional Information
American Museum of Natural History: Amphibian species of the world, An online reference.
AmphibiaWeb Digital Library Project: University of California, Berkeley. Species accounts for Salamandridae.
https://amphibiaweb.org/lists/Salamandridae.shtml
Bonato, L and Steinfartz, S. Evolution of the melanistic colour in the Alpine salamander Salamandra atra as revealed by a new subspecies from the Venetian Prealps. Italian Journal of Zoology, 72: 253 - 260 (2005)
Clare. 2002. Caudata Culture Species Database Entry for Salamandra. https://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Salamandra/Salamandra_sp.shtml
García-París, Alcombendas, Buckley and Wake. 2003. Dispersal of viviparity across contact zones in Iberian populations of fire salamanders (salamandra) inferred from discordance of genetic and morphological traits. Evolution 57:129.
https://ib.berkeley.edu/labs/wake/2003_Evolution_Salamandra.pdf
Mazzei. Amphibians and Reptiles of Europe. http://www.herp.it/
Schantz. Fire Salamander Website - Gallery. http://www.feuersalamander.com/Bilder.htm#Bilderoben [no longer available online]
Schultschik. Current Systematics of the genus Salamandra. http://www.salamanderland.at/eigene.Schriften/Systematik.Salamandra.htm [no longer available online]
©2005 William Jones 2005. Photos are © as indicated, and are used with permission.