Notos and color variety

[Naut]

I found my newt in the wild and he's a yellowish/olive color. I noticed pictures and videos of other Eastern Red Spotted Newts being a blue-ish color with more of an aquatic tail. Does this mean my newt hasn't reached a full mature adult stage? He's aquatic about 90% of the time despite his pointy tail.



and Here's the blue-ish newts I've seen with a more developed tail.

Red-spotted Newt Courtship - YouTube

I was just wondering what makes up this difference in looks.

 

[Azhael]

Yeah, you have a subadult female by the looks of it. The colour change will be complete once it reaches maturity.

 

[slowfoot]

She looks like a normal adult to me. I think the bluish tint you're seeing in the video is just the lighting/reflection of the glass on the newts.

My males will sometimes get bluish rings around their black spots during the breeding season, but not an overall blue color.

 

[Logan]

It is hard to set a standard considering the wide range of Notos. I have seen individuals in Illinois in the wild that are dark green and some that are so light that they seem yellow.
Logan

 

[Naut]

I had always thought I had a male noto, the legs are thicker than the arms and it has a bulge thats very noticeable below the legs. He ate a feeder fish just 2 days ago so that explains the weight on it. I could be wrong lol

 

[otolith]

My Noto v. v. looks basically the same as yours except he has smaller and more numerous spots. He is from New Hampshire. I have seen them darker or more yellow, I would guess the dominant color trend has a lot to do with locality but it definitely varies widely within populations too.

 

[Azhael]

Doesn´t she look too redish to be an average adult? I don´t know, i have a subadult female that looks the same and she is clearly not mature yet (and refuses the water as if it was acid).

 

[Greatwtehunter]

Looks like a male that hasn't fully left the eft stage to me.

 

[uwe]

we had now the guesses between male/felmale, adult/subadult. Or in other words nothing concrete.

The blue color in the (BTW perfect video) is problem of lighting (as said peviously by slowfoot).

The hindlegs also of females are bigger than the frontlegs, so without good comparison its hard to tell.

My adult animals look colorwise moreorless the same.

So color does not argue against adulthood.

Uwe

 

[slowfoot]

Yeah, I don't think we can tell how mature the animal is by the lightness or darkness of the color - I have a mature female who is darker than that (and one who is a lot lighter).

Also, the back legs are a bit ambiguous. I'd probably need a better picture to tell.

 

[ed_moyer]

I would say inmature female. Here, The spotts on a male tail are the same size as there belly spotts!! Females have smaller spotts on there tails!!! But what do I know!! It only the way I've been sexing them for 40+ year's

 

[uwe]

Hi Ed,

very interesting statement. As far as I know, this diiferentiation method is not described in literature. So you say the spots on the tail of males are bigger than of femael or is it the difference between belly/tail spots.

When would be the youngest age (in an eft) to apply this differenciation?

Best Regards

Uwe

 

[slowfoot]

I use a version of the tail spots too: males have spots that are larger and farther apart on their tails. I've never compared them to belly spots though.

 

[ed_moyer]

It's not until atfer morphing, That you can really tell. With the N.v.v right here. Alot of our adults stay aquatic an always look in breeding form!!