Red-Spotted Newts

The Eastern Red-spotted Newt. A.K.A. Eastern Newt. Notophthalmus viridescens. This is the aquatic adult stage. When they’re younger, they have a terrestrial stage. On land, the “red efts” are startlingly orange-red colored, walking “don’t eat me!” signs (being toxic to most predators). These spotted newts can live more than a dozen years. This seems to be a female, and gravid as all get out. She curled around this vegetation. Ouroboros! It looked like she almost got stuck. Was she laying an egg? She’ll do one egg at a time, over a couple of weeks, wrapping each egg in a leaf or something similar.On the newt/salamander semantic issue: “Alone among salamanders found at the station, the eastern red-spotted newt is a member of Salamandridae, the family that comprises all “true salamanders” and newts. It is one of only 7 species of newt in North America, out of only 87 species worldwide. However, this prolific newt is second to only one other US salamander in the extent of its distribution — they are found throughout the eastern US, as far west as Texas and Minnesota. Although no one feature distinguishes newts from other salamanders, they tend to spend more time in the water as adults and have a more complex courtship system.”More about these critters.This one was the smallest of four seen here in New Jersey.