Triturus vulgaris

[chris]

This female has both male and female sex characteristics - low crest and bars on tail, but lays eggs and tailfans the other female occasionally - most of theeggs she has laid are infertile, which may be related to this anomally, but could just be coincidence. She is also incredibly aggressive at feeding time, grabing legs, tails and heads of the other two newts. Anyone seen this before in triturus?
Chris

 

[coen]

Very remarkable, and no, I've never seen anything like this before. Had trouble sexing vulgaris before though, but when I'd see the individual on your photo my guess would ofcourse be male on first sight... pretty weird!

 

[chris]

Coen
Pretty lucky that this was the one I caught out of about 40 newts in my friends pond!
Chris

 

[kamil]

Hi Chris,

where did you catch it? Is it possible that this is a mix between helveticus & vulgaris?

Female Helveticus:

Female Vulgaris:

 

[caleb]

Chris- is it a young newt? I've seen young females tailfan occasionally, but not older ones.

I've seen some pretty big crests on females' tails before, but never extending onto the body like that.

It'll be interesting to know whether any of the eggs are fertile...

 

[leonardo]

the crest extended even on the body is very common in Triturus vulgaris meridionalis' females...and I've seen also adult females tailfanning others females, especially just after a short stress...

Leo

 

[francesco]

Hi all
maybe she/he is hermaphrodite.
Does this occur in amphibians?

 

[chris]

The animal was captured in in a pond containing only vulgaris (West Kent, England - so not meridionalis)...she is very large (about 8cm) and so I guess she is not old. Some of her eggs are fertile but I am not raising larvae - only hatching and introducing to my pond as I don't have the time/resources to rear such tiny larvae...
I am interested to see if other females carry the same traits in the pond, as it is in fairly large grounds with probably little contact with other populations, due to roads, wall etc...
Chris