Biogeography of Neurergus strauchii barani Öz, 1994 and N. s. strauchii (Steindachner, 1887) (Amphibia: Salamandridae) assessed using morphological and molecular data Frank Pasmans 1 , Sergé Bogaerts 2 , Tonnie Woeltjes 3 , Salvador Carranza 4 Abstract. Five new locations of N. strauchii are reported from Turkey, closing the gap between the two subspecies N. s. barani and N. s. strauchii. A molecular analysis based on 829 base pairs from two mitochondrial ribosomal genes (12S and 16S rRNA), together with geographical data from the area concerned, indicate all new populations found are very closely related to the mitochondrial sequences from specimens of N. s. strauchii from its type locality and suggest the river Euphrates might have acted as a natural barrier separating the only populations of N. s. barani known to date from all other populations of N. s. strauchii. A morphological analysis of all N. strauchii populations sampled for this study indicates that belly patterns are not a good diagnostic character to differentiate between N. s. barani and N. s. strauchii, suggesting the only reliable morphological taxonomic character that allows their identification is the different number of yellow spots in adult specimens, which is significantly higher in N. s. strauchii. The analyses also indicate that the number of spots is similar between sub-adult and adult N. s. barani but significantly different between sub-adult and adult specimens of N. s. strauchii, suggesting there is also a difference between both subspecies in increase in the number of spots during maturation. Listed by IUCN as vulnerable and protected by the Bern Convention (1979), our findings indicate N. s. strauchii is more widely distributed than previously thought, while N. s. barani would be restricted to just a few localities. Disturbance of its prime habitat, mountain brooks, and uncontrolled illegal collection, especially of N. s. barani, are still the main threats to the Anatolia newt throughout its known distribution range. Introduction The genus Neurergus is represented by two species in Turkey: Neurergus strauchii (Stein- dachner, 1887) and N. crocatus Cope, 1862 (Baran and Öz, 1986). The nominate sub- species N. s. strauchii (Steindachner, 1887) is known from the lake Van area (Schmidtler and Schmidtler, 1970). In 1994, the subspecies N. s. barani Öz, 1994 was described from the moun- tains near the city of Malatya (Öz, 1994).This subspecies is characterized by scarcity of the dorsal yellow spots and the continuity of the ventral orange line from the gular region to the 1 - Department of Pathology, Bacteriology and Avian Dis- eases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent Univer- sity, Salisburylaan 133, B-9820 Belgium e-mail: frank.pasmans@UGent.be 2 - Honigbijenhof 3, NL-6533 RW Nijmegen, The Nether- lands 3 - Molenweg 43, NL-6542 PR Nijmegen, The Netherlands 4 - Departament de Biologia Animal, Universitat de Barcelona, Av. Diagonal 645, E-08028, Barcelona, Spain tip of the tail (Öz, 1994). Moreover, N. s. barani larvae show more characteristics of pond-type larvae compared to the larvae of N. s. strauchii (Steinfartz, 1995). Both subspecies are sepa- rated by a gap of approximately 300 km, from which no specimens are known. A genetic study using mitochondrial gene sequences, allozymes and three plasma protein loci from all known species of Neurergus ratified the subspecific sta- tus of N. s. barani from the genetic point of view and suggested this subspecies split from N. s. strauchii approximately 3 mya (Steinfartz et al., 2002). The main aim of this study was to deter- mine the possible presence of populations of N. strauchii in the area between the two previously known areas (populations 1, 6 and 7 for N. s. barani and 2 and 8 for N. s. strauchii in fig. 1), to collect data on their morphology and ecology and to assess the level of molecular and mor- phological differentiation among them. © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2006. Amphibia-Reptilia 27 (2006): 281-288 Also available online - www.brill.nl