Differentiating T. verrucosus, T. shanjing

I just acquired my first verrucosus -- or what seems to be verrucosus from what I read in advance.

I read that unlike shanjing, the dorsal ridge of vercossus is not orange. I'm hoping there are some exceptions because the dorsal ridge of one of my pair is indeed orange. I think it's the one in the bottom left of this pic I took at the shop:



Wouldn't want to make a lethal mistake as I aim to keep them in an aquatic setup -- and shanjing would drown, right? One sign that seems to confirm the female with the orange ridge is vercossus is that it has taken to the water and seems to prefer being submerged, while contrary to expectations, the male with the dark ridge prefers to stay on a moss-covered brick.

The following pic is of their very temporary setup (about 7cm of water in there, a few bricks and lots of plants to climb up on just in case). Any tips welcome and appreciated!



They've been kept for several months at the shop on land (as shown above) and in one of those sliding glass-door coolers. I'm hoping the warmer temp in my room (21C-23C) will encourage them to breed...though it may take a while for them to settle down in their new environment.

Hi Tim,
all of them look like "verrucosus". A couple of my animals also posess this brown vertebral ridge. Have a look at John's excellent care-sheet on Caudate Central. Trigger for breeding seems to be a rise in temperature and not necessarily constantly high temperatures.

Ralf

Hi Ralf, yep, that's a great caresheet. It's actually where I read about the dorsal ridge of verrucosus being "not orange". The ridgeline on mine is more orange than brown, though I don't have a good pic of it to show yet.

It was also written in the caresheet that with verrucosus, the head "is flattened in a triangular shape when viewed from above" (shanjing having a "relatively straight head")...but there were no shanjing at the shop for comparison. Also, I don't know from where the verrucosus were imported...

I recall you saying you keep yours 100% aquatic. Mine were on land for a long time, unsold because of the high price (though I managed to get them cheaply). So I'm going to slowly ease them into an aquatic environment.

No worries about constantly high temps yet as it's still cool here in Tokyo...just warm enough to get them in the mood. For what it's worth, I've also dimmed the lights, put on some Perry Como/Frank Sinatra and added a teaspoon of red wine to their water
(official disclaimer: "just kidding")

Anyway, what a thrill it is to finally be among the ranks of Tylotriton-keepers!

Here they are (suspected female on the right, suspected male on the left):




I read something in Japanese today about a supposed way to tell the difference between verrucosus and shanjing by the number of "bumps" on each side of the ridge between certain points. Anybody heard anything similar?

Hi Tim,
Here is the article you need to check out Nussbaum, Ronald A.; Brodie, Edmund D. Jr.; Datong, Yang; 1995, A taxonomic review of the Tylototriton verrucosus anderson (Amphibia: Caudata: Salamandridae), Herpetologica 51(3): 257-268
It will help you tell them apart.
Ed

They're verrucosus alright, but verrucosus is a mess as a species - remember that shanjing was only separated out from verrucosus in 1995. My opinion is that there are a number of subspecies in this group, maybe species. Some look more like shanjing than others. You definitely have "verrucosus" though. That last one above could almost be a hybrid between one of my verrucosus and a shanjing, particularly looking at the head shape. They are particularly orange too, but some verrucosus are more highly coloured than others, and the ridge is always lighter than the background body colouration, even if only a little. My verrucosus are mostly quite dark.

If you talk them into becoming aquatic I think they will become more like my photos because the skin texture changes and I think the colours become a bit more sombre.

Lovely photos btw .

TKS John..but lets see how well you do in identifying this one:



Sorry, trick question that was. It's actually one of my Cynops ensicauda ensicauda. But it does look a bit like verrucosus, eh?