Salamandra dorsalis Harlan, 1829

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 : 154

Salamandra dorsalis Harlan, 1829

[= Triturus (Diemictylus) viridescens Rafinesque, 1820 ]

Holbrook (1838a:57, pl. 10) gave an account of Harlan’s species, a junior subjective synonym of Notophthalmus viridescens by which the Eastern Newt was known to Holbrook and others until Baird (1850) synonymized them and selected Notophthalmus over Diemictylus Rafinesque, 1820, acting as First Revisor. Both were originally proposed as subgenera of Triturus Rafinesque, 1815 . Holbrook (1842e:77, pl. 25) reprinted his earlier account essentially verbatim, moving the species to his Triton . Based on the different numbers of spots and differing positions of the limbs, the J. Sera illustration from the first edition is a different specimen from that figured by J.H. Richard in the second edition. Specimens from “ Caroline du Sud [South Carolina ]” and “Charleston, S.C.” from Holbrook are in Paris (MNHN-RA 0.4718) and Cambridge (MCZ A-1122 and A-125873–4), respectively. The former was received from Hallowell in January 1856 from the ANSP, and the latter were cataloged in 1875 by Garman, after Holbrook’s death. None of them appear to be those illustrated in either edition.