A newt has many distinguishing features. Some have rough scaleless skin that is slightly moist. The skin is just moist enough for them to stay wet. Their skin is also poisonous in most breeds to some degree. Their color can vary by species, age, and sex. They come in a variety of colors and spotty markings. Each newt has a unique set of spots on their bellies like a fingerprint.

 

They have four short legs with four or five toes and always have tails. They range in size from a few centimeters to over 1.5 m long. They have horizontal eyes with very good sight. They also have a good sense of smell. They can live up to 27 years old. During mating season, the bodies of the males go through some changes. Their hind legs get longer and bigger. They get horny structures on their thighs and toes that is called their breeding dress. Their vents or gills swell and they get broadly keeled tails.

 

The female newts look very chubby when they are full of eggs and ready to mate. Newts have a unique method of reproduction. After performing a courtship ritual where the male swims and fans his tail sending attractive secretions from his reproductive organ toward the egg-filled female. Then the male deposits a small packet of sperm called a spermatophore. He then urges the female over it where she then presses her cloaca, which is a reproductive and kidney opening, against it and picks up the spermatophore.

 

Newts eat a variety of different insects and other small animals. When newts are larva their main diet consists of things like tadpoles, worms, insects and insect larvae. They also eat small water snails. Adult newts eat similar things. They sometimes eat other newts, tadpoles, and young frogs. They also can eat water snails, insects, and insect larvae. Newts live in a precise environment.

 

They like deciduous and coniferous forests. They live in unpolluted ponds, small lakes, ditches and marshes. Some even live in trees near a water source. Since newts are amphibians they can live on land or in water. Adult amphibians must live near water because they are only partly adapted to land. Newt’s larvae can only live in water.

 

Newts are commonly found in the Northern Hemisphere. They also live in temperate regions of Europe, North America, China, and Japan. As interesting as newts are they do not help us much. They do not harm or destroy our crops. They do help us by keeping some of the insect populations down. Newts make good pets. Newts have few predators thanks to their poisonous skin. Their predators are eagles and other birds.

 

Sometimes a few fish will attack adult newts, but they mainly attack adolescents and larvae. To tell the truth the species of salamanders called newts are interesting. They are ribless. They have 3 stages of larvae, eft and adulthood. There are three types of newts, smooth, palmate, and great crested newts.

 

Author: Cameron Q.

Date Published: April 2006

 

Sources: www.umesc.usgs.gov/.../species/central_newt.html www.nh.gov/nhinfo/animal.html www.bnl.gov/esd/reserve/salamanders.htm www.werc.usgs.gov/fieldguide/tato.htm

 

Photo Credit: http://www.amphibiainfo.com/gallery/caudata/salamandridae/notophthalmus/viridescens /n_viridescens_eft_anon.jpg