Salamandra fasciata Green, 1818

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 : 159

Salamandra fasciata Green, 1818

[= Salamandra opaca Gravenhorst, 1807 ]

Holbrook (1838b:103, pl. 23) provided a brief account of the Marbled Salamander ( Ambystoma opacum ), which was widely known Green’s name until Baird (1850) properly restored Gravenhorst (1807) ’s description. Holbrook noted its broad distribution from Massachusetts to South Carolina , all the way to the “western” state of Ohio, stating that the specimen on which T.W. Hill’s plate is based was from Dr. Binney in Vermont. Holbrook (1842e:71, pl. 23) reprinted the account essentially verbatim, but replaced Hill’s somewhat crude drawing with a more lifelike stone lithograph by J. Queen. Based on the color pattern, both illustrations are of the same animal, but Hill’s may have been done from life, while Queen’s shows the legs contorted, as if in preservative. A specimen of Ambystoma opacum attributed to Holbrook is extant in Paris (MNHN-RA 0.4701). This specimen does not appear to match the illustrations from North American Herpetology and was likely preserved and donated later, likely hand-delivered by Holbrook during his 1842 visit to Paris.