Marbleds -- new breeding round

ahh yes-but most of these are fertile-which i was surprised since i thought the male wasnt ready in time. i now have about 6 hatched and she is still laying-shes huge so i know she will go on laying for a while. do your females have crests tim? my girl has both a mini crest and a small white tail sheen......

Nice. I'll have another look to see if the females have anything of the sort, but I think it's just a slight protrusion or ridge.

Anyway, a change in subject to the birds and the bees...but can anybody explain to me the function of the cloaca? And does the male open it during courtship whereas it is normally kept closed? Here are some shots of the cloaca of an actively courting male:

Awesome photographs Tim...

Those last ones could be consider as "newt pornography"?

Thanks Kamil, but what I was really driving at was the sexual function of the cloaca. I've misplaced my Biology of Amphibians book, but what I have handy is Amphibians: The World of Frogs, Toads, Salamanders and Newts which has this to say:

"Cloaca: joint exit of hind-gut (anus) and urinary and genital ducts and the cloacal gland typical of Urodela males. It produces the gelatinous material for the creation of spermatophores, pheromenes, which play a role in sexual behavior, and other scents important for territory marking. Urodela with internal fertilization have especially complex and (in males) large cloaca. The cloaca of the female is smaller and its function is different."
<font size="-2">(Amphibians: The World of Frogs, Toads, Salamanders and Newts. Firefly Books, 2000)</font>

Paris, as you can see, there's little to speak of here in the crest department, as far as my females go:

Rubén, I think the judge would let me off with just a slap on the wrists because at the time I photographed it, I wasn't even sure of the nature of what I was photographing

So don't you be going around and labeling me the Larry Flynt of the newt enthusiast community!

off the top of my head tim the cloaca in males is used for pheremones in the way you are asking. they have villi in there and the extension of the surface area helps to expose their pheremones to the aquatic environment more- it is my impression that the bigger more exposed the cloaca the 'louder' the advertisement of scent. i think it is in the book you mention that they have done research on JFB's to show that the groves down the body in males help areodynamically in their ability to waft scents foreward with their tails. so when males are most excited they extend the cloaca as much as they can-you can watch this in pachytritons when they get excited by a new member in the tank or when a female is taking interest in them, their excitement shows itself by the eagerness in which they fan more and the cloaca swells, some even are seen to be straining almost in the effort. my understanding also in the seasonal bulge in the males vent is the activation of the glands which produce the mucous for spermataphores. the sperm is created in the testes but the mucous is created in situ in the cloaca.

btw i will post the pic of my females crest to show what i mean in a separate post

That has got to be the biggest shot of a cloaca I have ever seen Tim. The first one you posted was darker. The males of my pygmaeus as well as the single dobrogicus opened their cloaca while performing the tail whip and it remained open sometime after. Paris already mentioned that in the post above. If you refer to my thread about T dobrogicus, you might notice that the cloaca expands prior to depositing the spermatophore. It remains open right after deposition and while leading the female to the spermatophore. My speculation is that the female sniffs the cloacal area possibly following the trail of pheremones. Unless some chemical analysis is done I cannot be 100% certain if this is the case.

tim do you keep them aquatically throughout the year, and at what water temp do they begin to breed. my male is forming his crest(although very slowly) and the female is going very pear shaped. do they need a severe cooling to become fertile. mine were at 6c 43f for a couple of months and are now in the water at 12c 54f. any info would help as i've never bred marmoratus before.

wish i could get some

Hi Tim, are they marmoratus? Looks like pygmaeus which have white ventral color. How big the adult size?

cute babies!