Newts

Photo © Jim Jung and licensors. All rights reserved.

Newts are another salamander species that chooses the frigid water of early February for their nuptial habitat. In fact in our area some populations of this species are neotenic (maturing into reproducing adults without losing juvenile characters like gills, aquatic tail fins, etc.). While neotenic populations never leave the water they mate on the same schedule as their more conventional bretheren.

Newts have a complicated life cycle (for a salamander). The conventional land-dwelling adults begin congregating now in temporary pools bordering or surrounded by woodlands (neotenic populations are already there). They mate in conventional salamander fashion and then resume their normal lives.

Photo © Jim Jung and licensors. All rights reserved.

Newt larvae feed and grow up as gilled aquatics and then transform into their land dwelling form. But instead of turning into miniature versions of adults they transform instead into tiny efts - rough-skinned, red-brown individuals only an inch or two in length. They then spend from one to three years wandering the woods in search of prey and growing larger. Since their skins are highly toxic and contain cardiac glycosides (among other nasty compounds) they're relatively immune from predators and are consequently bold and fearless little creatures often encountered in woodlands after summer rains. At the end of this cycle of their lives they transform again into their adult form and take their place in the reproductive population of their kind.

Why some populations remain neotenic while others in the same area (and even in the same pool, I suspect) don't, is one of those nagging little mysteries we'll just have to live with until some researcher somewhere investigates the phenomenon more fully. Mexican Axolotls (which are a race of neotenic Tiger Salamanders) remain neotenic because of a lack of specific nutrients in their high-altitude diet. I suspect that the reason our Newts are neotenic is much more complicated. Anyone searching for a graduate thesis please contact this website!

Offsite Link:

• U.S. Geological Survey Eastern Newt page. Photos and range map.

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