The Eastern Newt is a common newt of eastern North America found in small lakes, ponds, and streams or nearby wet forests. The eft (juvenile) is reddish-orange in color with two rows of black-bordered red spots. The adult’s skin is a dull olive green with black-rimmed red spots, and a dull yellow belly. As an adult it develops a larger, blade-like tail and characteristically slimy skin.
Forest, Wetland
The Eastern Newt is one of only a few species in the Family Salamandridae native to North America. This newt ranges throughout most of eastern North America, from the Canadian Maritime Provinces west to the Great Lakes and south to Texas, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida
Common
Nocturnal
Eat mainly midge larva and other aquatic immature stages of insects
With the aid of its flattened tail, the Eastern Newt moves quickly in water, yet is slow on land. Adult newts spend their lives in water, often foraging both day and night. Winter is spent underground, unless the adults are in permanent water. The eastern newt produces tetrodotoxin, which makes the species unpalatable to predatory fish and crayfish. Eastern newts are able to regenerate their limbs that were lost to an injury.
Eastern newts are important predators of small invertebrates in the freshwater ecosystems of eastern North America.
Least Concern
