The Eastern Newt is characterized by a lack of vertical grooves on each side of the body between the front and hind limbs, a distinct yellow belly with small black spots, and a body, head, limbs, and tail of olive green to brown with small black spots. Some females may exhibit red spots encircled by black. During the breeding season, females have more robust bodies, whereas males exhibit a high tail fin, swollen cloaca! opening, and horny black growths on the inner surface of the thighs and tips of hind toes.. Aquatic larvae have flattened tails, olive-colored skin, and feathery gills. They transform into a dry, rough-skinned, terrestrial “eft” stage after 2 to 5 months as an aquatic larva. The eft is reddish-orange in color with two rows of black-bordered red spots along the sides. It has well-developed lungs, limbs, and eyelids. After 2 to 3 years on land, the eft returns to the water and transforms into an adult. The adults are yellowish-brown to greenish-brown and have black-bordered red spots. The belly color is yellow with black spots, and the tail becomes broad, finned, and vertically flattened.
Adults are normally 57- 100 mm (2¼-4 inches) in total length. The largest specimen from Kansas is a female (KU 204158) from Cherokee County with a snout-vent length of 52 mm and a total length of 110 mm (4¾ inches) collected on 2 May 1984 by Stephen M. Reilly and David M. Hillis. The maximum length throughout the range is 127.0 mm (5½ inches) (Powell et al., 2016).
The Eastern Newt is found along the wooded riparian corridors of the Marais des Cygnes, Spring, and Marmaton river drainage basins. Eastern Newts are the only salamanders in Kansas to exhibit three distinct stages of development (larvae, eft, and adult). Adult Eastern Newts are totally aquatic and inhabit ponds, small lakes, marshes, swamps, and ditches. They probably remain active the entire year. Gloyd (1932) first recorded this salamander from Kansas on the basis of two specimens from Miami County: an eft, found in late August in a piece of decaying wood among leaves, bark, and debris about ten yards from the north shore of a lake; and an adult, caught in water a foot deep at night in a wooded swamp on the west side of the $ame lake during April. Ashton (1977) recorded 42 adult Eastern Newts (24 males and 18 females) from a small spring-fed pond in Cherokee County during March and April. Larvae were first observed on 19 May, when no adults could be found. The adults showed a preference for cooler water in the spring-fed areas of the pond and were observed there from September through April. Rundquist and Collins (1977) and Rundquist et al. (1978) recorded four larvae and one eft of the Eastern Newt from a small weed-filled pond in Cherokee County on 21 July. The pond also contained breeding males of the Spring Peeper. Collins (1982) and Loraine (1983) observed these amphibians active in a small pond in the same county in mid-April.
The complex courtship of the Eastern Newt takes place in the water. Smith (1934) detailed the following account of courtship activity in this species.
The male cautiously approaches the female who, at first, may dart rapidly away in a state of excitement. The male continues his approach until the female remains passive, and then he begins a series of contortions and undulations. These contortions last only a few seconds, whereupon the male quickly mounts the female, clasping her body tightly with his hind limbs. Once in this position, the female cannot dislodge him. Both salamanders then remain quiet for as long as several hours, except for a fanning movement of the tail of the male. This fanning is regular and rhythmic and probably stimulates both animals. The female eventually responds by raising and fanning her tail. At this point, the male becomes more active for a short time, his entire body quivering and his cloacal opening swelling as he drags the female about the water. At the climax of courtship, the male rapidly bends his body from side to side, leaves the female, slightly raises his tail, and throws his whole body into a series of rapid and strenuous undulations. If the female follows and touches his tail or cloaca with her head, the male deposits a spermatophore. The female follows him, passes over the spermatophore, and picks up some of the sperm with her cloacal lips.
According to Ashton (1977), breeding and egg deposition apparently took place from mid-March to late April in a population from Cherokee County. Larvae were observed from May to early July, and all had evidently metamorphosed and left his Cherokee County study site by August.
The eggs are laid singly on aquatic vegetation and hatch in three to five weeks. After the gilled, pond-type larvae metamorphose in the fall, they enter the eft stage of their lives, a terrestrial existence of two to three years. At the end of this eft stage, they are sexually mature and return to water to begin their completely aquatic adult existence.
Eastern Newts feed on insects, insect larvae, worms, tadpoles, small crustaceans, and mollusks. They appear to be opportunistic in their choice of food.
First reported in Gloyd (1932) where he discovered an eft-staged specimen in a piece of decaying wood on 31 August 1928 (UMMZ 68385) and C. L. Hubbs collected an aquatic adult nearby on 6 April 1929 (UMMZ 68384; incorrectly listed as UMMZ 68386 in Gloyd op cit.). Moriarty and Collins (1995) give the first collection date as 21 August 1928, however the UMMZ data and Gloyd (1932) give the date as 31 August 1928.
Listed as a Kansas Endangered species in 1978 and downlisted to Threatened in 1987. No recovery plan has been completed.
Kansas designated critical habitat is defined as, all suitable wetlands, waters, and moist wooded bottomlands occurring within that portion of Cherokee County lying south and east of a line starting at the Kansas-Missouri border at Kansas Highway 96 in the SE 1/4 Sec. 12, T33S, R25E, then extending west along K-96 to its junction with Kansas Highway 26 at the NE corner Sec. 18, T33S, R25E, then south along K-26 to its junction with U.S. Highway 66 at SE corner Sec. 18, T34S, R25E, then south and west along U.S. 66 to the Kansas-Oklahoma border at Sec. 14, T35S, R24E. All suitable wetlands, water, and moist wooded bottomland occurring within 5 air-miles of the Marais des Cygnes Wildlife Area, Linn County.
At localities this species is known to occur, it can be reliably found from year to year. However, few such locations are known across its range in Kansas. Populations are geographically small, localized, and centered on suitable breeding sites.
Irwin and Collins (1994) rediscovered this species in Linn County after a 44-year lapse. They reported several new localities and commented on the breeding condition of several adults.
Based on a captive specimen, Snider and Bowler (1992) reported a maximum longevity for this species of nine years, five months, and one day.
References
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