AmphibiaChina 中国两栖类.

Conservation Status (definitions)

IUCN Red List Status Account Least Concern (LC) CITES No CITES Listing National Status None Regional Status None

Description
Pachytriton granulosus, or the Pingchi’s Newt, is a medium-sized rough-skinned salamander. The adult male snout-vent length range is 59.0 - 78.9 mm, whereas the adult female range is 59.9 - 81.6 mm (Nishikawa et al. 2011).

*cannot confirm this text from this citation* The head is flat, transitions smoothly into a stout. The body is cylindrical. Its toes and legs are short and stubby with four toes on the forelimbs and five on the hindlimbs. It has a paddle-like tail that is laterally flattened; it does not taper at the end. The adult form is supposedly entirely aquatic, but it’s overall ecology is still unstudied (Nishikawa et al. 2009).

DIAGNOSIS:

This species tends to have a longer body morphology compared to the species it previously was mistaken for Paramesotriton labiatus, along with orange dots on the side, which are not present in Paramesotriton labiatus. Another distinguishing feature between these two species is the presence of a shiny, silver-like color on the tail of P. granulosus adult males (Nishikawa et al. 2009, 2011). Pachytriton granulosus is larger than Cynops orientalis. A distinct dorsal ridge differentiates P. granulosus from Paramesotriton chinensis. Additionally, Paramesotriton chinensis has isolated reddish orange spots on the ventrum and a small yellowish spot at the base of the limbs on the dorsum. Black spots on the dorsum of Pachytriton brevipes differentiate it from P. granulosus (Nishikawa et al. 2009). A larger, more robust body and wider head differentiates Pachytrition inexpectatus from the similar P. granulosus. Additionally, they are separated by a large geographic distance (Nishikawa et al. 2011). Geographic range also separates P. granulosa from other similar species, Pachytrition archospotus, Pachytrition brevipes, Pachytrition feii and Pachytrition xanthospilos (Wu et al. 2013).

COLORATION:

In life, these salamanders have dark coloration with orange spots on their sides. Their ventral surfaces are bright orange along with a few darker speckles all around (Nishikawa et al. 2009).

Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: China

View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.

Pachytrition granulosus is distributed within the mountain streams of the Zhejiang and Fujian regions of China where water is cold and highly oxygenated. They are restricted to montane habitats at high elevations and their distribution is small but continuous. Their elevational range reaches up to 2000 m above sea level (Wu et al. 2013).

Life History, Abundance, Activity, and Special Behaviors
Pachytrition granulosus was thought to be a junior synonym of Paramesotriton labiatus (Nishikawa et al. 2011). As a result, literature on both species prior to 2011 is suspect and needs to be verified.

Trends and Threats
Pachytrition granulosus is threatened by the exploitation of their habitats and excessive pet trading. Establishing legal protections on their habitats and regulations on pet trading have been suggested for their conservation (Nishikawa et al. 2011). Additionally, P. granulosus is adapted to colder climates and its distribution has a narrow temperature range, which suggests that this species could potentially be threatened by global warming (Wu et al. 2013).

Relation to Humans
This species is kept as a pet and regularly traded in the domestic and international markets (Nishikawa et al. 2011).

Possible reasons for amphibian decline

General habitat alteration and loss
Habitat modification from deforestation, or logging related activities
Urbanization
Prolonged drought
Intentional mortality (over-harvesting, pet trade or collecting)
Climate change, increased UVB or increased sensitivity to it, etc.

Comments

PHYLOGENETIC RELATIONSHIPS:

The phylogeny of the Pachytriton clade has been problematic. Pachytriton granulosus was originally misidentified as Paramesotriton labiatus, due to their shared trait of granular textured skin. Pachytriton granulosus have also been mistaken for several other species (Nishiwaka et al. 2009, 2011). However, based on Bayesian Inference and Maximum Likelihood analyses on both mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, P. granulosus is the sister taxon to the clade composed of P. brevipes, P. feii, and P. xanthospilos. The next most closely related species is P. archospotus, then P. inexpectatus (Wu et al. 2013).

The original specimen that was used to describe this species was originally lost during WWII, which has caused confusion in the determination of P. granulosus as a species (Nishiwaka et al. 2009).

ETYMOLOGY:

The species epithet, “granulosa” is likely a reference to the granular skin texture.

References

Nishikawa K, Jiang J-P, Matsui M, Mo Y-M (2011). "Unmasking Pachytriton labiatus (Amphibia: Urodela: Salamandridae), with Description of a New Species of Pachytriton from Guangxi, China." Zoological Science, 28(6), 453-461. [link]

Nishikawa K, Jiang J.P., Matsui M., Chen, C.S. (2009). "Morphological variation in Pachytriton labiatus and a re-assessment of the taxonomic status of P. granulosus (Amphibia: Urodela: Salamandridae)." Current Herpetology, 28, 49-64. [link]

Wu, Y., Wang, Y., Jiang, K., Hanken, J. (2013). “Significance of pre-Quaternary climate change for montane species diversity: Insights from Asian salamanders (Salamandridae: Pachytriton)”, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 66(1), 380-390. [link]

Species Account Citation: AmphibiaWeb 2023 Pachytriton granulosus: Northeastern Paddle-Tailed Newt <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/7662> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed Nov 21, 2024.

Citation: AmphibiaWeb. 2024. <https://amphibiaweb.org> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed 21 Nov 2024.

AmphibiaWeb's policy on data use.