We recently delineated five species of alpine newt on the basis of genome-wide data. Four of these species already had a scientific name available, but the fifth did not. Therefore, in a paper published in Zootaxa, we describe this previously unnamed alpine newt from the Vlasina region of Serbia and Bulgaria as a new species: Mesotriton similis. The name similis refers to the morphological similarity of the new species to the other alpine newt species. The five alpine newts are morphologically cryptic and we currently do not know of any morphological features that set the Vlasina alpine newt apart from its relatives.

Reference: Wielstra, B., Cvijanović, M., Džukić, G., Vukov, T., (2026). A new alpine newt species from the Vlasina region of Serbia and Bulgaria. Zootaxa 5897(4): 435-442.