The fire belly newt or fire newt is a genus (Cynops) of newts native to Japan and China. All of the species show bright yellow or red bellies, but this feature is not unique to this genus. Their skin contains a toxin that can be harmful if ingested.
Species Species recognized as of October 2019: Image Scientific name Common name DistributionCynops chenggongensis Kou and Xing, 1983 Chenggong fire belly newt*Chenggong District of YunnanCynops cyanurus Liu, Hu, and Yang, 1962 Chuxiong fire-bellied newt or blue-tailed fire belly newt* Guizhou and YunnanCynops ensicauda (Hallowell, 1861) Okinawan sword-tail newt Ryukyu Archipelago in JapanCynops fudingensis Wu, Wang, Jiang, and Hanken, 2010 Fuding fire belly newt* Fuding in northeastern Fujian, ChinaCynops glaucus Yuan, Jiang, Ding, Zhang, and Che, 2013Guangdong, ChinaCynops orientalis (David, 1873) Chinese fire belly newt*ChinaCynops orphicus Risch, 1983 Dayang newt or Dayang fire belly newt*Jiexi County in eastern Guangdong Cynops pyrrhogaster (Boie, 1826) Japanese fire belly newtJapanCynops wolterstorffi (Boulenger, 1905) Yunnan lake newt*Yunnan, ChinaCynops yunnanensis Yang, 1983 Yunnan, China
(A * means that the newt has been moved into the genus Hypselotriton in some classifications )
Taxonomic controversy The genus Cynops has been suggested to be due for a split, with the Chinese species being placed in a separate genus from the Japanese ones. The species Cynops cyanurus is at the centre of all this. There is much debate about the validity of C. cyanurus and C. chenggongensis. All the known captive animals could be something different from C. cyanurus, as they do not entirely match the original description of the species. The only known animals that match that are animals originating from Chemnitz Zoo, but the F2 animals have not bred well, which could suggest they are in fact a hybrid of C. cyanurus and C. chenggongensis or an undescribed Cynops species.
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