Golden coloured newt, please help to identify

[Stomatopod]

Originally Posted by hedgehugger

Earlier this year I had orange newts


they weren't all like it, but several were

Looks like a pair of gravid smooth females. need to look at their throats to be sure.

[Putorius]

Our two commonest species of newt do vary in colour greatly. Just like people really!

Going by the geographical location, I would think it more likely that the first animal pictured is a female vulgaris. However, that is by no means certain.

I am afraid that the speckled throat scenario is not a fool proof way of distinguishing between females of the two species. In the majority of cases it is certainly the case, but there have been instances of female vulgaris displaying throats with no speckling and therefore being mistaken for helveticus.

The only sure way of differentiating between the two is to look at the base of the hind feet. In the case of a female helveticus, there are two noticeable nodules, one at the base of each of the outermost digits. The nodules are abscent in the case of vulgaris. I have access to some images which demonstrate this further. Once I get to grips with posting pics I will put them up.

[Putorius]

Originally Posted by Putorius

The only sure way of differentiating between the two is to look at the base of the hind feet. In the case of a female helveticus, there are two noticeable nodules, one at the base of each of the outermost digits. The nodules are abscent in the case of vulgaris. I have access to some images which demonstrate this further. Once I get to grips with posting pics I will put them up.

As promised, here is an image which demonstrates the nodules on the rear foot of a female palmate. The nodules are absent in smooth newts.

[Ukwildlifeo]

In refernce to the Original post in Essex the palmate is there rarest of the 3 newt species. However I know for a fact there are palmate newts in Norsey woods in Billericay so these cant be ruled out