FIELD BOOK OF POINTDS AND STREAMS 



Food. — Whether in the water or out newts are carnivorous. 

 In the ponds they eat snails, small crustaceans, and their own 

 larvae. 



Breeding habits. — The breeding season is from March to 

 April but they occasionally mate all through the year, especial- 

 ly in the autumn. When mating, the male seizes the female, 

 clasping his hind feet just behind her front legs. Holding 

 her firmly he bends his own body in an S-shaped curve and 

 begins rubbing the side of his head against hers, and at the 

 same time steadily tapping his tail against her body. Occasi- 

 onall}^ he yanks and shakes her and together they shift and 

 twist their bodies. This performance may go on for hours 

 and as readily in aquaria as in the pond. Soon after the pair 

 separates, the male deposits the white vase-shaped sperma- 

 tophores (p. 357). Dozens of these can often be seen scattered 

 here and there on submerged leaves. As the male moves away 

 from the spermatophore which he has deposited, the female 

 follows him and crawls over it, taking its mass of sperm 

 cells into her cloaca (Fig. 288). She lays her eggs singly, each 

 in a capsule of jelly, placing them on leaves or in the axils 

 of leaves and stems of Chara and Elodea. These are brown 

 at one end, creamy or light green at the other, and 80 to 100 

 of them may be laid by one female. 



Life history. — The newly hatched larvae have branching 

 gills, "balancers," the buds of their front legs, and fish-like 

 tails (Fig. 286). Toward fall they gradually lose their gills 

 and acquire lungs, and their color changes from green to red. 

 Their further migrations and color changes vary; in many 

 places they climb out of the ponds and spend at least one 

 winter on land, while in some regions they do not appear to 

 leave the water at all. Sizes and ages at which the young, 

 usually brick red sub-adult finally matures seem to depend 

 upon differences in food, temperature of the water, character 

 of the ponds, and perhaps upon other still unknown factors. 



Vivarium. — Both young "red newts" and adults are most 



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