Got my first newts....

[Deb London]

Lovely Robin. I love looking for such activities in ponds after dark.

[RobinP]

Originally Posted by Deb London

Lovely Robin. I love looking for such activities in ponds after dark.

I'm sure you do, Deb

[Red Robin]

The following sequence I witnessed last night might have been better recorded by video but I don't have such a camera.

In step 1, the male is displaying and wafting attractive pheromones with his tail. A female is responding by approaching as in step 2. Meanwhile a third newt marked (?) denoting unconfirmed gender is lurking in the shadows.



In step 3, the female is making contact with the male who has remained in the same position and continued tail waving. The third newt has also approached closer - It's difficult to see but does it have a rather pregnant looking body and therefore might be another female attracted to the male's display? Notice the Palmate male's tail filament clearly shown in this shot.

I don't know what happened next as they all scooted off somewhere else, probably fed up of being under the spotlight of my torch and my voyeurism! Also, my camera battery ran out of juice and my spare was indoors.

[RobinP]

Good stuff RR. Just had a quick look in the pond (life, get...) and not too sure what's going on here, they look like two females to me, but what do I know

[Red Robin]

Originally Posted by RobinP

Just had a quick look in the pond (life, get...) and not too sure what's going on here, they look like two females to me, but what do I know

....They look like two Smooth newt females to me but I'm not an expert. They certainly have a different head structure to my Palmates.





My female is definitely carrying eggs.

[dampflippers]

Definitely pregnant!
The easiest diagnostic is chin colour.
If you don't want to wrestle with her in her condidtion, get a pyrex with some pond water in. Gently scoop her up and put in dish, then lift dish up to view underside.
Pink pigmentless chin is palmate.
Cream and spotted is smooth

This is a male palmate I took yesterday:

[Red Robin]

Originally Posted by dampflippers

This is a male palmate I took yesterday:

....That's an extremely good photo for identification. Though I did at first wonder why he was kept on a silver chain lead!

[Putorius]

I am afraid that the speckled throat scenario is not a 100% fool proof way of distinguishing between females of the two commoner 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.
Here is an image which demonstrates the nodules on the rear foot of a female palmate. The nodules are absent in smooth newts.

[dampflippers]

I agree about the speckling, but I was referring to the main under chin colour.
Smooth is cream, palmate tends to be pigment-less ie pink. The male in my photo above has a slightly grubby chin.

Just to confuse everyone, here is a photo of what looks like a hybrid male:

[Putorius]

Originally Posted by dampflippers

Smooth is cream, palmate tends to be pigment-less ie pink.

But not always! The only 100% sure method of differentation is the nodules on the rear feet. Most of the time you can go by the throat method but not always.