Morphological evidence for the presence of the Danube Crested Newt, Triturus dobrogicus (Kiritzescu, 1903), in Slovenia

Abstract

We offer preliminary reports on the presence of the Danube Crested Newt, Triturus dobrogicus, in Slovenia. This species reaches its western border of distribution in Hungary, Austria and Croatia, but untill recently it was not known from Slovenia. Here we report on the first record of this species in Slovenia, found in Dolinsko polje of the Prekmurje region during the herpetological surveys carried out in the spring of 2009 and 2010. The species identity was determined by coloration, body shape and the Wolterstorff Index values. Only with additional genetic analysis could we answer if this is a pure population or whether hybridisation with T. carnifex is present.V bližini Slovenije je panonski pupek poznan iz Avstrije, Hrvaške in Madžarske. Spomladi 2009 in 2010 smo na Dolinskem polju v Prekmurju na podlagi vzorca obarvanja, oblike telesa in Wolterstorffovega indeksa prvič določili in zabeležili to vrsto v Sloveniji. V prispevku so predstavljeni preliminarni rezultati, medtem ko bodo za ugotovitev, ali je populacija iz Dolinskega polja čista ali pa se križa z velikim pupkom, potrebne nadaljnje genetske analize.