The salamandridae family.

Part three the palmate newt.

This is the smallest of the British newts. The male has a olive brown colour back with a dark streak above its eye. The female is slightly lighter in colour than the male. They are about three inches in length including their tail. Breeding males have webbed hind feet, a low, smooth crest with a short filament on their tail, the crest is less obvious after the breeding season(which is between February and May). Both males and females have dark spots on their backs. But unlike the common newt the palmate does not have spots on its throat. Both the male and the female have a light yellow under-belly with few spots.The palmate newt is active by day and night during the breeding season, after this they normally appear while it is raining or on humid days. The male also has swollen glands (cloaca) during the breeding season. They live in ponds, ditches, marshes and woodland. The female spends the breeding season laying between one hundred and three hundred eggs which turn into larvae after about three weeks, these then metamorphosise after about nine weeks into adult like newts. The young newts which are known as efts become sexually active after two years, but sometimes this can be slowed or delayed by the process of neoteny. Adults hibernate under logs and stones, but more often in water during November and February. They feed on invertebrates,crustaceans, frog tadpoles and planctonic animals. They may live up to ten years in the wild.