California Newt

The California newt has warty, slate-gray skin on its back and bright orange-yellow skin underneath. It is very similar in appearance to the rough-skinned newt and they are often indistinguishable without dissection, but in general, the California newt has orange skin around the bottom of its eye while the Rough-skinned has gray skin at the bottom of its eye. The California newt also has eyes that protrude beyond the edge of the jaw line when viewed from above (while the eyes of the rough-skinned do not protrude), giving its head a more bullet-like appearance. The red-bellied newt is also similar but has dark irises vs. yellow in the California newt, more red coloration underneath, and a dark band across the vent that is lacking in the California newt. Newts are amphibians. They are related to salamanders (in a subfamily called Pleurodelinae). They live in North America, Europe and Asia. Their skin tends to be rougher than the skin of salamanders.

California newts reside in the coastal counties of California and in the southern and central Sierra Nevada and occupy a diverse array of habitats found near the small ponds and creeks where they breed, including woodlands and chaparral.

Reproduction occurs generally between December and early May. Typically, the adult newts will return to the pool in which they hatched. After a mating dance, the male mounts the female and rubs his chin on her nose. He then attaches a spermatophore to the substrate, which she will retrieve into her cloaca. The egg mass released by the female contains between seven and 30 eggs, and is roughly the consistency of a thick gelatin dessert. Typically, the egg masses are attached to stream plant roots or to rocky crevices in small pools of slow-moving water, but they have also been known to be attached to underwater rocks or leaf debris. While shallow in a wide sense, these pools are rather deep relative to the average depth of a Southern California stream, varying in depth from about 1–2 metres (3.3–6.6 ft). Adult newts typically leave the pools shortly after breeding has concluded, however, some adults may remain in the pools for an additional few months to feed. Larvae hatch sometime in early to midsummer, depending on local water temperature. Larvae are difficult to find in streams, as they blend in well with the sandy bottom, to which they usually stay close. The size of maternal eggs influence the sizes of larvae. The larvae from larger eggs will not only experience shorter time period on metamorphose than larvae from smaller eggs, but also grow larger.