Eastern Newt (Notophthalmus viridescens)

County List:

Rule:

Forested or Mixed Forested/Nonforested Landscapes

Adult and Eft Habitat Requirements may be distributed across the COMPARTMENT

Adult Stage:
      (Lake or Pond or River or Marsh 1 or Marsh 2)

Eft Stage:
      (Any Forested Upland Except Conifer Plantations (Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))
      (Any Forested Lowland (Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))
   containing:
      (Dead Down Woody Debris or Rock)

Habitat List:

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Literature:

Newts have an unusual life history that includes an aquatic larval stage, an intermediate land-living stage called the eft, and an aquatic adult stage.

Adult newts inhabit ponds, marshes, and shallow lakes. They are most abundant in permanent, fishless ponds with ample growth of aquatic plants. In deeper ponds they can remain active throughout the year. Efts are usually found near breeding ponds, under logs, rocks, boards, and other objects, but they may be seen walking in the open during and after rainstorms. If a pond dries up, the adult newts can again become terrestrial, at which time their tail fins shrink and their skins darken and become rougher.

Newts feed on small aquatic invertebrates, including mosquito larvae and pupae, as well as eggs and larvae of other amphibians. Efts eat insects, worms, and small snails.

Red-spotted Newt -

Habitat: Adults found in ponds, particularly water with abundant submerged vegetation, and in weedy areas of lakes, marshes, ditches, backwaters, and pools of shallow slow-moving streams or other unpolluted shallow or semipermanent water. Terrestrial juveniles (efts), live in moist areas on land typically under damp leaves, under brush piles or logs and stumps, usually in wooded habitats. Moist beech-maple-hemlock woods in New York and oak-pine woods in Massachusetts. May be seen moving about on wet days in spring and summer. Efts hibernate on land burrowing under logs and debris, but most adults remain active all winter underwater in pond bottoms or in streams. During winter months often found semiactive groups of 20 to 40.

Special Habitat Requirements: Water with aquatic vegetation for the adult newt.

Red-spotted Newt-

The habitats of known neotenic (skip the juvenile eft stage) populations are relatively permanent ponds in generally dry and sandy areas of coastal New York and Massachusetts. In Illinois neotenic individuals occur in farm ponds separated from woodlands by large grassy areas. In general, these are considered marginal habitats for efts and adults, and this may explain the existence of neoteny. Perhaps in poor environments it is advantageous to reduce the time to sexual maturity from 4 to 2 years, and thus facilitate population growth, particularly in recently colonized areas.

Habitat: Adults are found in relatively permanent ponds in woodlands, gravel pits, farm fields, orchards, mountains, plus quiet areas of streams, and shallow areas of lakes. They are seen most often in areas with soft bottoms and vegetation, although they can also be found in areas with sandy, gravelly, or rocky bottoms. (Adults have also been seen swimming under ice during winter months). Newt larvae are found in these aquatic areas until they transform into juvenile efts.

Efts are found in woodland habitats (deciduous, coniferous, and mixed), usually in the same general areas where adults breed, although efts do migrate. These terrestrial individuals are found most easily after summer rains when they emerge from hiding places under logs, bark, rocks, or discarded boards, etc. Adults have also been found in terrestrial habitats, especially when shallow ponds have dried up, or the water temperature rises too high, or oxygen concentration decreases too much. They may migrate to nearby ponds or stay in moist areas under protective shelters.

Newts migrate during the spring, summer, and autumn. Sexually mature efts can be found migrating to aquatic areas during any of these seasons. Larvae undergoing metamorphosis into efts can be found emigrating from hatching ponds into the terrestrial habitat in late summer and autumn. Individuals usually migrate at night during periods of rainy weather.