Home: Animals: Amphibians: Broken-Striped Newt

Bio Facts: Broken-Striped Newt
Common Name: Broken-Striped Newt
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Scientific Name: Notophthalmus viridescens dorsalis
Family: Salamandridae
Family: Caudata
Class: Amphibia
Range: Eastern United States
Habitat: Aquatic animal found in ponds and lakes with dense submerged vegetation, swamps, ditches and damp woodlands.
Description: Newts are the amphibians of the salamander family.  They have long slender bodies like those of lizards with a tail that is flattened laterally.  The Broken-Striped Newt is about 2 5/8” to 5 1/2“ long.  The black-bordered red stripe is broken in at least 1 or 2 places on the head and trunk; however, it rarely extends onto the tail.  There may be a row of small red spots on the lower sides of the body and a light line down the center of the back.  During their “eft” stage, Broken-Striped Newts are reddish brown in color.  The red stripes are not so strongly bordered by black as in the adult stage.
Life Expectancy: 4-7 years in the wild; up to 15 years in captivity
Sexual Maturity: n/a
Diet: In the wild, Newts eat worms, crickets, insects, amphibian eggs and larvae.  In the Zoo, they eat catfish chow, “turtle ball,” earthworms and brine shrimp.
Status: Common
Behaviors:

Newts have a life history very similar to frogs and toads.  Adults spend most of their life on land but return to water to breed. 

Newts forage for food in shallow water.  They hunt by odor and movement.  Newts will eat other newts smaller than themselves.

Newts secrete a toxic substance through their skin, so fish and other predators avoid them.  This substance will burn if it gets into your eyes.

The female lays 200 to 400 eggs singly on the leaves of submerged vegetation.  The female Newt tests the leaves by smell and touch.  When she has chosen a suitable one, she holds it with her hind feet, then folds the leaf over to form a tube and lays an egg in it.  The jelly surrounding the egg glues the leaf firmly in place to protect it.

The eggs hatch in about 3 weeks and a streamlined tadpole emerges.  In captivity, the eggs hatch in only 1-2 weeks.  Metamorphosis, however, takes longer.
Adaptations:

Broken-striped newts go through a red colored, land dwelling stage called “eft” that may last from 2-3 years before finally maturity at which time they return to the water for the rest of their lives.

Hibernation begins in the autumn, when newts crawl into crevices in the ground or under logs and stones.  They cannot burrow but are very adept at squeezing themselves into cracks.  Occasionally several will gather together in one place and hibernate in a tight mass.

The jaws of newts are lined with tiny teeth in two rows on the roof of the mouth.  These are not used for cutting food or for chewing, but merely to hold slippery, often wriggling, prey.
Special Interest:

The toxic substance secreted through the skin of the newt can burn if it gets into an animal’s eyes.

Newt are not as slippery as most salamanders.  Their skins are rougher and not slimy. 

Few predators will eat newts, for their skin-gland secretions are toxic or at least irritating to mucous membranes.

The name comes from the Anglo-Saxon “evete”, which became “ewt”, and finally “a newt” from the transcription of the “n” in “an ewt”.  In Britain newt refers solely to the genus Tritutus, but in North America is has been applied to related animals that are sometimes, confusingly, called salamanders.
Folklore:

An English phrase, “to be as overtired as a newt,” is a euphemism used when someone is suffering from too much to drink.  According to P.B. and J.S. Medawar’s book, Aristotle to Zoos, this expression can be attributed to “the somewhat tipsy-looking side-to-side movement of the newt’s relatively big head, produced by its sigmoid swimming movements.”

The witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth used the newt in concocting their evil brew.  In Act IV, scene one, the second witch chants:

“Eye of newt and toe of frog,

Wool of bat and tongue of dog,

Adder’s fork and blind-worm sting,

Lizard’s leg and howlet’s wing,

For a charm of powerful trouble,

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.”

Newts seemed to add just the right touch to this brew.
Conservation: n/a
Jacksonville Zoo History: This species has successfully reproduced here.
Revised: January 2002