The identity of Proteus tritonius Laurenti, 1768: comments on a really doubtful case of literary interpretation

2026/02/13 by Günter Gollmann, Birgit Gollmann · 1 voice
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Environmental Science · #Coleoptera: Cerambycidae studies #Coleoptera Taxonomy and Distribution #Freshwater macroinvertebrate diversity and ecology

paper · pdf · doi:10.3897/herpetozoa.39.e178255

Abstract

Proteus tritonius Laurenti, 1768 has long been regarded as the larva of Triton alpestris Laurenti, 1768. It is the type species of Ichthyosaura Sonnini & Latreille, 1801, the oldest available generic name for the Alpine newt, Triton being preoccupied by a senior homonym. Mutz and Böhme (2025) declared Proteus tritonius a nomen dubium, based on new interpretation of Laurenti’s text, and moved it to the synonymy of Salamandra salamandra (Linnaeus, 1758) by a neotype designation. We challenge the validity of this neotype designation, because Mutz and Böhme (2025) ignored evidence contradicting their argumentation, and the morphology of the neotype does not conform with the description of P. tritonius .

Discussions

• This paper challenges a recent attempt to rename and reclassify the Alpine newt. The authors argue that previous research ignored key evidence, which would have wrongly linked the newt's history to t [bsky, 6 points, 0 comments]

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