Red-spotted newt
The red-spotted newt, also known as the Eastern newt, is an amphibious creature belonging to the family Salamandridae. Typically measuring between 2 1/2 to 5 1/2 inches (6 1/2 to 14 centimeters) in length, these newts possess smooth, jelly-like skin that features an orangish-red coloration with small black dots. They have distinctive body proportions, with four fingers on their front limbs and five toes on their hind limbs. As a carnivorous species, their diet consists of worms, slugs, insects, and crustaceans, while they face predation from snakes, birds, and small mammals.
In terms of reproduction, red-spotted newts mate in the spring, with females laying 200 to 300 eggs that hatch into orange larvae with feathery gills. These larvae live in water until late summer, subsequently transforming into land-dwelling efts. After a few years, they undergo metamorphosis into water-dwelling adults, adapting their physiology for aquatic life. Importantly, red-spotted newts secrete toxins through their skin, serving as a defense mechanism against predators. They primarily inhabit forests, swamps, ponds, and streams in eastern North America and have a lifespan of about 10 to 15 years.
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Red-spotted newt
Red-spotted newts have toxins, or poisons, covering their skin. These toxins help protect these amphibious, lizard-like creatures from dangerous predators. Red-spotted newts are also called Eastern newts.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Urodela
Family: Salamandridae
Genus: Notophthalmus
Species: Viridescens
Red-spotted newts generally grow to 2 1/2 to 5 1/2 inches ( 6 1/2 to 14 centimeters) long. They have slender bodies with long, slender tails, much like lizards, but their skin is smooth and jelly-like instead of rough and dry. They are an orangish-red color with a few tiny, black dots speckling their backs. Like other amphibians, red-spotted newts have fewer digits, or fingers or toes, on their front limbs than on their hind limbs. They have four fingers on their front limbs and five toes on their hind limbs.
These newts mate in the spring. The female lays 200 to 300 eggs that hatch after 3 to 8 weeks. The orange larvae have feathery gills and live in the water until the end of the summer. They grow out of their gills and become young red-spotted newts, called efts, that live on land for one to three years. They are bright orange or red. As they grow, they become dark green and live primarily in the water. When they move into the water, they change, or metamorphose, into water-dwelling animals. Their skin becomes softer and more jelly-like. They breathe through their skin and gills. Their tails transform to help propel them through the water. These changes help red-spotted newts survive in their watery, summer homes. In the water, newts mate, breed, and gain fatty weight preparing for winter on land. When old enough to breed, they often return to the same ponds where they were born.
Red-spotted newts live in forests, swamps, ponds, and streams in eastern North America. They live on a diet of worms, slugs, insects, and crustaceans. This type of diet makes them carnivorous, or meat-eating animals. Snakes, birds, and small mammals prey on red-spotted newts. Sometimes these predators get an unpleasant surprise. Red-spotted newts have toxins, or poisons, across their skin to protect them.
The life span of red-spotted newts is about 10 to 15 years.
Bibliography
"Eastern Newt - Notophthalmus Viridescens." PBS, nhpbs.org/wild/easternnewt.asp. Accessed 15 Apr. 2024.
"Eastern or Red-spotted Newts." The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore, www.marylandzoo.org/animal/eastern-newt-red-spotted-newt. Accessed 15 Apr. 2024.