Question: Why are my larvae transparent at night?

[arienette]

Hello everyone,

I was wondering why my larvae are turning transparent at night. They are P. labiatus and two months old. I'm not really concerned, just curious as to why this happens. I'm guessing it has something to do with being pigmented from light during the day (like a sun tan)...but it seems strange that the pigmentation would disappear within a matter of hours after the sun goes down. It's cool to see their hearts and other organs at night, though.

Any thoughts on this?

Andrea

 

[Kaysie]

I'm not sure why they do this either. However, I've seen this in many species, adult and larvae. It's odd...

 

[federnewt]

When my pleurodeles waltl were youngs they change their colour too..

 

[Jennewt]

Andrea, I infer from this that the eggs did turn out to be from the paddletails, and they were fertile. It would be great if you could continue your old thread on this subject, as it's quite a special rarity to get eggs from paddletails. Here is a link to your old thread:
http://www.caudata.org/forum/showthread.php?t=53747

Larvae do sometimes change from light to dark, though I never noticed it being a night/day difference. That's neat.

 

[arienette]

Hi Jennewt,

I'll update that thread with some information. I hadn't read the last you made post in the thread for some reason, otherwise I would have responded then...sorry about that.\

Andrea

 

[arienette]

I just updated the thread with my latest book.