Red-Spotted Newt (red eft). Aprox. 2~3" long. Subspecies of Eastern Newt (Notophphthalmus viridescens).
Taken at 5x with Olympus MCON-35. Manual Focus. Mid day natural light.(ccb)

The red-spotted newt (RED EFT) is an amphibian and highly toxic. The red-spotted newt eats small insects such as flies. The red-spotted newt is toxic.
Its bright color warns predators that it is inedible. Amphibians spend part of their life in water and part of it on land. The class of amphibians also includes frogs, toads, salamanders and newts.
When it is in the water stage it is colored dark green with dark red spots. When it is in the land stage it is more of a bright orange.
This is all the same animal but it goes through different stages like the moth, and the tadpole. In the American red-spotted newt, some coastal populations bypass
the normal eft phase, retain gills and become reproductively mature.

The red-spotted newt can detect the earth's magnetic field. It uses this signal as a directional reference. All newts and many salamanders return to the water
in the spring of each year. Females lay from 200 to 400 eggs, which hatch in 20-35 days. Within 3 months the larvae transform into a terrestrial, immature stage called the red eft,
which lasts for three years but in some cases the larvae turn directly into adults. A similar species is the red salamander.

For information go to:- http://www.cs.tufts.edu/~cabotsch/bulloughs/vertebrates/amphibians/red-spotted-newt.html

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