Added 10 August 2003. Last updated 3 September 2003: expanded Introduction and Bibliography.

The Family Salamandridae: Newts and Salamanders

Genus Echinotriton - Spiny Newts/Crocodile Salamanders

The genus Echinotriton was defined by Nussbaum and Brodie in 1982. It consists of species formerly assigned to Tylotriton. Opinions vary as to whether it is a full genus or subgenus.

Zhao et al (see Bibliography) give the external characteristics of the genus Tylotriton, including Echinotriton as a subgenus, as follows: head broad and large: labial folds inconspicuous: skin very rough, with warts and tubercles: limbs long, tips of fingers and toes overlap when appressed: tongue small, free on both edges.

E. andersoni

E. asperrimus

E. chinhaiensis

Scientific Name	Common Name	Distribution	Size	Notes
Echinotriton
E. andersoni		N Taiwan, Japan (Ryuku Islands)	?	Zhao and Adler note that this species is included in Chinese fauna on the basis of three specimens collected north of Taipei in Taiwan.
E. asperrimus		S & C China (Guangdong, Hainan and Guangxi northwards to Sichuan and S Gansu), N Vietnam	?	[].
E. a. asperrimus		S & C China (Guangdong, Hainan and Guangxi westwards to Guixhou), N Vietnam
E. a. wenxianensis		C China (NW Sichuan and S Gansu)
E. chinhaiensis		E China (maritime province of Zhejiang)		This species is known only from the type locality where it was found (Chengwan, Zhenhai County, in Zhejiang Province).

Bibliography

Studies on Chinese Salamanders, Er-mi Zhao, Qixiong Hu, Yaoming Zhang and Yuhua Yang, Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, 1988. Key English-language work on all the Caudata found in China.

Herpetology of China, Er-mi Zhao and Kraig Adler, SSAR, 1993. Catalogue of practically every reptile and amphibian species found in mainland China, Hongkong, Macao, Tibet and Taiwan. There are few details of the ecology of the animals, but readers are referred to a very comprehensive bibliography, and colour plates are provided for many of the creatures listed.