Barton and the forgotten description of Salamandra horrida (Amphibia, Urodela): story of a rediscovery

Abstract

Cryptobranchus alleganiensis (Sonnini & Latreille, 1801b) was long considered the only species of the genus Cryptobranchus Leuckart, 1821. In this genus, Sabatino & Routman (2009) found eight genetic independent unities isolated from each other, which they treated as Management Units. Later, Hime (2017) recovered five strongly supported species-level lineages within this genus, corresponding more or less to the lineages of Sabatino & Routman (2009). We herein resurrect a valid nomen for one of the lineages of Hime (2017) (Ohio/Allegheny/Susquehanna lineage), the most broadly distributed of the five, which should be named Cryptobranchus horridus (Barton, 1807a). We relate the story of the rediscovery of two forgotten publications of Barton (1807a‒b) preceding that of 1808 so far recognized as the original description of this taxon. We discuss the problem of the onymotope of Cryptobranchus alleganiensis and present logonomic lists for the genus Cryptobranchus and all the taxa described. The nucleospecies of the genus Cryptobranchus is Salamandra horrida Barton, 1807a which is no longer a synonym of Salamandra alleganiensis Sonnini & Latreille, 1801b. The updating of the logonymic lists revealed the forgotten designation of Barnes (1828) for the genus Protonopsis Le Conte, 1824, a synonym of Cryptobranchus. The following nomina can be allocated to three of the five lineages identified by Hime (2017): Cryptobranchus alleganiensis, Cryptobranchus horridus and Cryptobranchus bishopi. Two other lineages require further studies.