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Red-spotted Newt is small, only 7-10 cm in size. It is yellowish to greenish brown with black dots, and a of about a half-dozen larger black-bordered red spots on its back. The belly is yellowish and covered with tiny black spots. The skin of this newt is rough, as though finely wrinkled. During its terrestrial stage, when it is known as an ‘eft’, it is orange-red and retains the black-bordered red spots down the back. Newts may be found in shallow ponds or bays where there is some debris or aquatic vegetation to provide hiding and resting places, and an absence of predatory fish.
The most interesting aspect of the Newt's life history is its three-stage life cycle: aquatic larvae, terrestrial efts, and aquatic adult. They breed in April and May in the Algonquin Highlands, and the eggs hatch in three to four weeks. Larvae transform and leave the water in August or September, to spend several years on land, before returning to the water as a mature Newt. At this stage, they lose their bright colour, and develop a powerful finned tail. They retain the toxic skin qualities of their eft stage.
The brightly coloured eft feeds on spiders, caterpillars, flies, and invertebrates in the leaf litter, whereas the newt consumes small mollusks, crustaceans and insect larvae.
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RED-SPOTTED NEWT
(Family Salamandridae)
Notophthalmus viridescens
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