See a bit of color in the leaves? It’s a red-spotted newt

By Zoey McGee  |  Manor Ink

With the significant amount of rain and humid weather in Sullivan County recently, it is likely that you have seen a small, orangeish-red salamander with black-bordered orange spots across its back in a patch of grass or a wooded area. This is an eastern red-spotted newt, but I bet you didn’t know that the newt that you saw is still not a full-grown adult. The newt has four stages in its life cycle, which I will explain.  

The first stage of the newt’s life cycle is the egg. A female adult newt produces between 200 and 400 eggs. Each egg is deposited individually in a decaying leaf in water, or a “macrophyte” leaf. After 20 to 35 days of incubation, the egg hatches.

Now the newt is at its second stage of its life, where it is now an aquatic larva. These larvae live entirely in water bodies such as ponds, lakes, ditches and marshes with muddy bottoms. During the day, they seek cover under mud and debris. Newly-hatched larvae spend their nights hunting and feeding on small invertebrates like zooplankton. As the larvae grow larger, their diet grows to larger invertebrates. 

After two to five months, the newt goes through metamorphosis from being a gill-breathing aquatic animal to a lung-breathing, mostly land animal. The newt is now at its juvenile stage of life where it is an “eft.” This stage is the most commonly seen by humans, as the efts’ coloration is a bright orange-red. Its bright skin warns predators, as the newt can secrete poisonous toxins when threatened. An eft lives on the moist floor of coniferous forests in leaf litter. The newt remains an eft for one to three years until adulthood. 

The adult newt no longer has bright orange skin and instead changes to be olive-colored. Adults still have lungs, but they also develop gills again to move back into their aquatic home. They can often be found in artificial water bodies or beaver ponds. The adult newt is carnivorous, as it is at all stages of its life, and will snack on insects, spiders, worms, tadpoles and even some small frogs and smaller newts. 

So when you’re out in the woods this summer, look closely at the ground amid the ferns and leaf litter. You just might spot this colorful Catskill denizen.