Banded Newt

Scientific name: Triturus vittatus
Order: Caudata
Family: Salamandridae (9 Triturus species)

Description: Up to 6 inches. 5 subspecies. Yellow-brown with a dense pattern of black dots. Lower flanks with silvery white to yellow, dark-edged longitudinal band. Abdomen yellow or orange. Dorsal crest comb-like, constricted above base of tail.

Distribution: Western Causasus and Anatolia to Israel. Usually at elevations from 3300 to 5300 feet.

Breeding: Following winter dormancy period, they seek out standing water in an open, usually sunny location and mate there. During aquatic courtship, both sexes (especially males) develop a high, laterally-compressed paddle-like tail. Males become aggressive toward each other. Courting male examines the cloacal region of others to determine species and sex. He positions himself obliquely to a female and fans toward her aromatic substances with beats of his tail. She follows him, and after brief mouth-tail pushing, she picks up spermatophore dropped by the male with strong jerking movements.

Nesting: Egg laying can extend over months. Female attaches several hundred eggs individually on small water plant leaves and bends leaves over into a protective cover around the sticky egg with her hind legs. They hatch in 2 to 3 weeks and metamorphose that summer.

Diet: Insects.

References

The Completely Illustrated Atlas of Reptiles and Amphibians for the Terrarium, Fritz Jurgen Obst, Dr. Klaus Richter and Dr. Udo Jacob. Translated by U.E. Friese. Neptune City, New Jersey: T.F.H. Publications Inc., 1988.

Living Amphibians of the World, Doris M. Cochran. Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1961.