Lacertus aquatilis Garsault, 1764

Dubois, Alain & Bour, Roger, 2010, The nomenclatural status of the nomina of amphibians and reptiles created by Garsault (1764), with a parsimonious solution to an old nomenclatural problem regarding the genus Bufo (Amphibia, Anura), comments on the taxonomy of this genus, and comments on some nomina created by Laurenti (1768), Zootaxa 2447, pp. 1-52 : 26

Lacertus aquatilis Garsault, 1764

The plate 674 of Garsault (1764) shows his species Lacertus aquatilis or “Salamandre d’eau”. The plate provides a good drawing of a breeding male of the newt species currently known (e.g., Raffaëlli 2007, Dubois & Raffaëlli 2009) as Triturus cristatus ( Laurenti, 1768) (family SALAMANDRIDAE Goldfuss, 1820 ). Given the quality of the drawing, showing the dorsal fins on the body and tail, it was most likely drawn from a living specimen, probably from the Paris region, where this subspecies was then common, although nowadays it is rarer there ( Dubois & Ohler 1988). Simply following priority, the species currently known as Triturus cristatus should now be known as Triturus aquatilis , a nomen that has never been used since 1764. This change would no doubt be disturbing for communication among zoologists, as since its creation and for almost 200 years, the nomen Triturus cristatus has been associated with the crested newt of western Europe (for a list of more than 25 recent references, see e.g. Arntzen 2003: 482–514). We therefore use Article 23.9.1 of the Code to reject the nomen Lacertus aquatilis Garsault, 1764 in favour of its junior doxisonym Triton cristatus Laurenti, 1768 .