Newts of the United States
Six species are found in North America. Notophthalmus, the eastern newts inhabit eastern North America, and Taricha, the western newts, are found along the Pacific coast.
The skin of newts is not slimy but rough textured unlike that if other salamanders and the coastal grooves are indistinct. As the breeding season approaches, male newts develop swollen vents, broadly keeled tails, and enlarged hind legs with black, horny structures on the inner surface of the thighs and toe tips. In male western newts, the skin becomes smooth. Eastern newts are primarily aquatic, while western newts are terrestrial. Transforming eastern newts leave the water as brightly colored forms called efts that live on the forest floor for 1 to 3 years and then return to the water to assume adult characteristics. Occasionally the larvae change directly into adults, skipping the eft stage. Western newts, by contrast, do not undergo an eft stage. They hatch as aquatic larvae, tehn transform into land dwelling adults that return to the water at breeding time.
There are six species of Newts in the U.S.
Found in the coastal plain of southern Texas south into Mexico.
Found from southern Georgia to central Florida.
Found from Nova Scotia to Florida and west in a swatch to southwestern Ontario and Texas.
Found on the Pacific Coast from Santa Cruz County, California, to southeastern Alaska with an isolate population near Moscow, Idaho that is believe to be introduced.
Found in coastal California north of the San Francisco Bay to southern Humboldt County.
Fround in coastal California from San Diego to Mendocino County, also on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada with a seprate population at Squaw Creek, Shasta County.
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