T. granulosa coutship questions

He everybody,

So I noticed something about my male T. granulosa.
He will be doing his normal courtship stuff, which is just him sitting on the females back and rubbing his chin. But then after a while ( about 24 hours ) he will start to leg pump/rub, and when he does that his cloaca wider ( from top to bottom ) and separates a lot in the middle.
Is this because he is about to drop a spermataphore? Or is it just coincidence? Or something else?

And also I was wondering if a male T. granulosa will re-mate with a female that he already has fertilized?

And one more question ( sorry ).

On the care page for T. granulosa there is a link to a page that Uwe Gerlach wrote. On that page he says this " After delivery of the spermatophore, oviposition occurs some weeks later." When he says oviposition I assume he means egg laying, yes? But is this accurate? Most newts lay the next few days from what I have heard. But this species doesn't? I want to know so that I can keep an eye out for that gravid look on my females. But if they lay the next day that wont be necessary.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post :happy: -Seth

I don't know about Taricha, specifically Seth, but I know for certain that two of my pyrrho's mated at least twice before the female started laying. It made me wonder if a batch of eggs from one female could be fertilized by more than one male?

So your saying that one of your females mated with a male twice before laying? Or that two different males mated with the same female and then she laid?
I am not sure if one batch of eggs could have been fertilized by both the males, but I would think so. -Seth

I actually saw the same male mate with the same female twice before she laid any eggs. She could have mated with the other male as well but I never saw her do that. If one female could be fertilised by different males, it would explain why I have two distinct types of juveniles with different characteristics from the same batch of eggs. I think Bellabeloo noticed the same with the group of pyrrho youngsters that she raised.

Well maybe she just wasn't receptive the first time and didn't take the spermataphore? And did the second time?
I think it is probably likely that they can lay eggs with both males genes etc. I don't see why not. Very interesting though.

What I meant was I did see her pick up the spermataphore on both occasions. There were a few other times when she got it stuck to her foot/tail or wandered off etc.

Anyway sorry for hijacking a thread about Taricha!

Oh I see. Well, I guess she just wants to be extra shore she has babies

That's all right, but now back to the questions.

Can anyone answer my questions please?