Can someone explain my pond?

[Newtilator]

Hello Caudata culture! I was just wondering if I could have some questions answered. I live in britain, and was recently studying my pond, which is filled with rana temporaria tadpoles, and noticed a newt. From my quick glance, it appeared to be a palmate newt. I understand only frogs or newts can populate a pond, yet I keep seeing suspicious looking, near transparent tadpoles. Could these be "newt-poles" Or are they just genetically defective frog tadpoles? Any hints on how to distinguish tadpoles of different groups apart from the supposed "newts grow front legs first" rumour? Thanks for any advice given!

 

[TristanH]

Hello Caudata culture! I was just wondering if I could have some questions answered. I live in britain, and was recently studying my pond, which is filled with rana temporaria tadpoles, and noticed a newt. From my quick glance, it appeared to be a palmate newt. I understand only frogs or newts can populate a pond, yet I keep seeing suspicious looking, near transparent tadpoles. Could these be "newt-poles" Or are they just genetically defective frog tadpoles? Any hints on how to distinguish tadpoles of different groups apart from the supposed "newts grow front legs first" rumour? Thanks for any advice given!

Hi there. It's quite likely that you have newts in your pond. All three British newt species can and do use garden ponds unless they contain a lot of fish. They often share ponds with frogs, though adult newts eat frog tadpoles so a large newt population will tend to wipe out any frogs (toads do better as their tadpoles taste nasty). However, where there are enough tadpoles (as in your case?) some will make it.

I'm not sure about your transparent tadpoles. Newt larvae are fairly inconspicuous, solitary beasts that don't look much like tadpoles. They should look something like the ones in this article http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/raising.shtml

You can see the front legs clearly (and yes, they DO grow first!) and the external gills.

Can you post a snap of your mystery tadpoles?

Tristan

 

[Jennewt]

Yep, it's not a rumor: newt/sal larvae grow the front legs first, while frogs/toads grow the back legs first. Also, caudate larvae have external gills, while anuran tadpoles have internal gills (almost always). Those two features should give you a fairly certain ID of frog versus newt.

 

[dario]

so a large newt population will tend to wipe out any frogs (toads do better as their tadpoles taste nasty)

It's not really true...Bufo bufo tadpoles are nasty for fishes and for some animals but for example Pleurodeles feeds them and European Green Frogs too...so I don't know how nasty they can see truly.

 

[TristanH]

It's not really true...Bufo bufo tadpoles are nasty for fishes and for some animals but for example Pleurodeles feeds them and European Green Frogs too...so I don't know how nasty they can see truly.

Dario, my comments apply to the UK only. We don't have Pleurodeles or Green Frogs in the wild here (ok, except for the Marsh Frogs in the SE and recently reintroduced Pool Frogs...). Nevertheless, Common Frog tadpoles make a tasty snack for just about everything, whereas toad tadpoles are not so palatable. Common Frogs tend to use smaller and / or more temporary water bodies for breeding in as a result.

Do green frogs feed underwater? I never realised this.

Tristan

 

[dario]

Dario, my comments apply to the UK only. We don't have Pleurodeles or Green Frogs in the wild here (ok, except for the Marsh Frogs in the SE and recently reintroduced Pool Frogs...). Nevertheless, Common Frog tadpoles make a tasty snack for just about everything, whereas toad tadpoles are not so palatable. Common Frogs tend to use smaller and / or more temporary water bodies for breeding in as a result.

Do green frogs feed underwater? I never realised this.

Tristan

Ok, you right!
Green frogs doesn't feed underwater but I saw them feed toads tadpoles in low water and toadlets too.

 

[Azhael]

I´ve seen L.boscai and L.helveticus have the meals of their lives on bufo bufo tadpoles. It´s true some species have nasty tasting and even poisonous tadpoles, but whenever a species develops a strategy to survive, there´s another one or several others adapting to avoid that advantage.