Neotene alpine newt

[Molch]

This one is 2 years old this winter and never morphed. I'm pretty sure it's a female; the cloaca looks girlish. She is now the same size as an adult male, but chunkier, with a more elongated flattened head and the same capacity to stuff her belly that she had as a young larva. She's a glutton and always the first to attack the food.

I'm curious to see whether she'll mate and lay eggs...

 

[Chinadog]

I like her! There's something about larval Alpines just before they morph, I think it's because the red gills go so well with the rest of the pattern. I was hoping some of mine would keep their gills, they all morphed in the end, though.

 

[otolith]

I ended up with a neotenous female Alpine this year as well. She's almost three times the size of the other morphs and an incredibly efficient hunter. Her gills are not as full as the one pictured.

 

[Stupot1610]

That's really interesting! Do you get many neotenic specimens?

 

[Molch]

Hi Stuart,
nope, she's my only alpine who did this. Although I have a very big smooth newtlet, twice the size of its siblings, who hasn't morphed yet and I have feeble hopes it'll be a neotene as well, but it's still too early to know...

 

[Stupot1610]

We have a few wild neotene smooth newts here, mostly female ones, I'm yet to see a neotenous male. I have quite a large population in my wildlife pond, there is also a not so large group of palmate newts but I haven't seen any neotenic ones of these. Although sometimes the larvae overwinter.

Stuart