Apuanus morphing with gills?

[Molch]

Check out these pics of one of my apuanus larvae. The others all look more or less like that too.

They are assuming adult colors and getting orange bellies, but the gills are still there in their full glory. At what point will they be fully morphed? Will they breathe through lungs even before the gills are gone?

They are about 5 cm (2 inches) long

 

[fabian]

Hi Molch,
a. apuanus larvae often keep their gills for a very long time, even after they change to adult colors. I have every year a few that grow up to 7cm or more with gills and sometimes breathing on water surface. Every time I think they will stay paedomorph, they suddenly loose their gills and look like normal adults.
Greetz
Fabian

 

[Mark]

I think generally newts will use a combination of respiration methods during all life stages. If the lungs are well developed there’s nothing stopping the newt pictured taking a gulp of air at the surface. Cutaneous respiration will probably account for a surprisingly large percentage of oxygen intake. The gills will continue to function in addition to this. If you think about it, settled newts in a well aerated aquarium rarely swim to the surface to take air. I could watch my apuanus group for days and never see them rise once. If memory serves I read somewhere that respiration via gills in axolotls was found to account for something like 6% of total respiration, hence why they don’t die when their gills get nibbled off.