igo Davey, Breeding of English Newts in Victoria, [y^r'xxlx 



NOTES ON THE BREEDING OF ENGLISH NEWTS IN 



VICTORIA. 

 By H. W. Davey, F.E.S. 



{Read before the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, loth March, 191 3 .) 

 Newts belong to a group of the animal kingdom very widely 

 spread over Europe, North America, and Northern Asia, but 

 are unrepresented in Australia, and thus perhaps a few notes 

 about them may be of interest. Along with frogs, toads, and 

 salamanders, they arc placed in the class Ami)hil)ia apart from 

 reptiles, and may be defined as cold-blooded vertebrates, usually 

 furnished with external gills at the commencement of their 

 lives, but before becoming adult passing through a stage during 

 which the gills are exchanged for lungs, although there are 

 exceptions — viz., the Proteidas and Sirenidse, both of which 

 families retain the external gills permanently throughout their 

 lives. The young newt develops legs in a manner somewhat 

 similar to the frog tadpole, but always retains the tail, which, 

 after the adult stage is reached, varies in shape according 

 to the season. In the breeding season newts are always of 

 brighter hues than at other times, and in some species the 

 males at this time develop very fine dorsal crests, the tail 

 in both sexes becomes very highly compressed, being formed for 

 rapid swimming. The food of adult English newts consists 

 largely of tadpoles of the common frog and the larvee of various 

 aquatic insects. 



Four years ago a friend, returning from a trip to England, 

 kindly brought out for me four specimens of the large English 

 newt, Molge cristata — three males and one female. Two of the 

 males escaped, and I was left with just a pair; these I tried to 

 breed from, but was unsuccessful. Every spring I thought they 

 would breed, as the male developed a very fine crest, better 

 than I had ever observed in England ; the male also paid much 

 attention to the female. But I seemed doomed to be dis- 

 apjjointed until this spring. 



The female commenced egg-laying on the ist of last Novem- 

 ber, the eggs being merely gummed to water plants, the leaves 

 not being folded uj), as is often said in books on natural history. 

 The eggs are laid singly, and are usually placed in the axil of 

 the leaf. The embryo is quite white, and is surrounded by a 

 glairy substance, such as arc the eggs of frogs and toads. On 

 the 6th of November the embryo was elongated, with a knob at 

 one end, and pure white all over. By the loth November two 

 embryos had movement, turning com]-)letcly from end to end in 

 egg, and pigmentation in longitudinal lines on back could be 

 observed. On the 14th November two larva: emerged during 

 the afternoon. Egg-laying was still being carried on by the 

 female, the last eggs being laid on 20th November, six eggs 



