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Our Roving Correspondent
DAILY NEWS (Bowling Green, Kentucky) 10 October 09 The newt a part of fall’s brilliant colors (Geordon T. Howell)
While raking moist leaves up this fall, you might be quite stunned to see a small, brightly colored creature squirming around beneath the autumn debris.
To some, the slimy life form might cause alarm, while in others the amphibian will likely evoke intrigue because of the fantastic, reddish-orange coloring of its slippery skin. Red-spotted newts tend to show up in places one would not expect to find any sort of water-loving salamander hanging out, but this adaptability to different environments and development is why they remain so prevalent in southcentral Kentucky and most of the eastern United States today.
For decades, the species’ hardiness has earned the red newt countless terrarium homes in science classrooms, and backyard gardeners consider them an asset because of the newts’ fondness of insects. A very interesting aspect of the red spotted newt is that it has three life stages, and the brilliantly colored stage that we are accustomed to witnessing is only the middle of this lengthy trio of metamorphoses.
Much like a frog, the amphibious newt begins life in a puddle, pond, or roadside ditch, where it hatches from one of hundreds of deposited eggs and begins life as a dully colored larva with a paddle-like tail. Eventually the immature larva undergoes a dramatic change in color, develops lungs and becomes a land-loving newt.
Many a fisherman has probably been disappointed after securing a handful of red newts from under a rotted log or stone step while searching for worms. Although the red newts closely resemble commercially produced plastic lizard baits and appear to be perfect live bait for bass fishing, nature has equipped the red-spotted newt with a skin toxin. Fish and other animals find the taste repulsive, so the fragile little newt needs no other defenses. This is why newts can live alongside predatory fish in ponds and streams during their first and third life cycles without the threat of becoming a meal.
For several years the bright, terrestrial newt might roam dry land before finally maturing, changing back to a moss-green color, and returning to the water to breed and live out the remainder of its lengthy life hunting the shallows for food throughout the year.
Keep your eyes peeled in the coming weeks, as one of the most striking fall colors may be not actually be the leaves, but a small newt residing beneath them.
Bowling Green Daily News
While raking moist leaves up this fall, you might be quite stunned to see a small, brightly colored creature squirming around beneath the autumn debris.
To some, the slimy life form might cause alarm, while in others the amphibian will likely evoke intrigue because of the fantastic, reddish-orange coloring of its slippery skin. Red-spotted newts tend to show up in places one would not expect to find any sort of water-loving salamander hanging out, but this adaptability to different environments and development is why they remain so prevalent in southcentral Kentucky and most of the eastern United States today.
For decades, the species’ hardiness has earned the red newt countless terrarium homes in science classrooms, and backyard gardeners consider them an asset because of the newts’ fondness of insects. A very interesting aspect of the red spotted newt is that it has three life stages, and the brilliantly colored stage that we are accustomed to witnessing is only the middle of this lengthy trio of metamorphoses.
Much like a frog, the amphibious newt begins life in a puddle, pond, or roadside ditch, where it hatches from one of hundreds of deposited eggs and begins life as a dully colored larva with a paddle-like tail. Eventually the immature larva undergoes a dramatic change in color, develops lungs and becomes a land-loving newt.
Many a fisherman has probably been disappointed after securing a handful of red newts from under a rotted log or stone step while searching for worms. Although the red newts closely resemble commercially produced plastic lizard baits and appear to be perfect live bait for bass fishing, nature has equipped the red-spotted newt with a skin toxin. Fish and other animals find the taste repulsive, so the fragile little newt needs no other defenses. This is why newts can live alongside predatory fish in ponds and streams during their first and third life cycles without the threat of becoming a meal.
For several years the bright, terrestrial newt might roam dry land before finally maturing, changing back to a moss-green color, and returning to the water to breed and live out the remainder of its lengthy life hunting the shallows for food throughout the year.
Keep your eyes peeled in the coming weeks, as one of the most striking fall colors may be not actually be the leaves, but a small newt residing beneath them.
Bowling Green Daily News