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Adult, San Luis Obispo County
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Adult, Contra Costa County |
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Adult, Contra Costa County |
Underside of Adult, Contra Costa County |
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Adults in defensive pose, showing the brightly-colored underside as a warning, Santa Cruz County |
Adult and juvenile, Contra Costa County |
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Adult, Contra Costa County |
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| Adult, Contra Costa County. Eyes viewed from above extend to or beyond the outline of the head. Eyes of Rough-skinned newt typically do not. |
Adult, note the yellow eye patch
and the light lower eyelid. |
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Juvenile, Kern County |
Male in aquatic phase, Kern County |
Aquatic phase adult male in breeding pond. |
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Aquatic phase adult male in the breeding pond, Contra Costa County |
Mass of underwater breeding adults, Contra Costa County |
Female laying her egg mass underwater |
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Eggs, close-up |
Larva in late June, Alameda County |
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Page 2: more pictures of breeding season newts, habitats, eggs and larvae.
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Habitat |
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Habitat, San Gabriel Mountains,
Los Angeles County |
Habitat, Contra Costa County |
Habitat, Kern County |
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Habitat, Contra Costa County |
Habitat, San Diego County |
Habitat, San Luis Obispo County |
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Habitat, Winter, Contra Costa County |
A careful look underneath the fallen bark of this dead tree turned up one Arboreal Salamander, two Coast Range Newts, one Yellow-eyed Ensatina, and 12 California Slender Salamanders, illustrating how dead wood and bark on a forest floor is an important microhabitat for salamanders and other wildlife.
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Habitat, breeding pond, Contra Costa County |
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Signs indicating a road closure to protect newts as they migrate to and from breeding areas during the rainy season, Contra Costa County.
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Sign at breeding pond in early Fall, Contra Costa County |
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Coast Range Newts on the move in the woods on a Fall morning.
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Description |
| Size |
| Adults are 2 3/4 - 3 1/2 inches long (7 - 8.9 cm) from snout to vent, and 4.9 - 7.8 inches (12.5 -20 cm) in total length. |
| Appearance |
| A stocky, medium-sized salamander with rough, grainy skin in the terrestrial phase, and no costal grooves. Breathes through lungs. Terrestrial adults are yellowish-brown to dark brown above, pale yellow to orange below. There is less contrast between dorsal and ventral color on sides than with T. granulosa. The eyelids and the area below the eyes are lighter than the rest of the head. The iris is silvery to pale yellow. The eyes appear to extend to or beyond the outline of the head when viewed from above, unlike T. granulosa. Breeding males develop smooth skin, a flattened tail to aid with swimming, aswollen vent, and rough nuptial pads on the undersides of the feet to aid in holding onto females during amplexus. |
| Behavior & Natural History |
| Terrestrial, often seen crawling over land in the daytime, becoming aquatic when breeding. Can be seen moving in large numbers to aquatic breeding sites during or after rains during breeding season. Terrestrial newts summer in moist habitats under woody debris, or in rock crevices and animal burrows, but can sometimes be seen wandering overland in moist habitat or conditions any time of the year. Potent skin secretions repel most predators. Poisonous neurotoxins widespread throughout the body can cause death in most vertebrates, including humans, if eaten in sufficient quantity. When threatened, this newt will assume a swaybacked defensive pose, exposing its bright ventral surface to warn potential predators, and holding its tail tip straight out. |
| Diet |
| Eats small invertebrates such as worms, snails, slugs, and insects along with eggs, and amphibian larvae. You can watch a movie of a newt feeding here. |
| Reproduction |
| Enters ponds, reservoirs, and sluggish pools in streams to breed, typically beginning in December or January with the first heavy rains. The breeding season lasts 6 - 12 weeks. Males arrive first, and stay longer than females. After a period of amplexus, where the male clutches the female from above, the male deposits a spermatophore and the female picks it up with her cloaca. The female lays and attaches a spherical egg mass to submerged vegetation or stones. Incubation times may vary at various locations, from 14 - 52 days. Aquatic larvae are the pond type, light yellow above with two dark regular narrow bands on the back. Larvae transform and begin to live on land at the end of the summer or in early fall. |
| Range |
| Endemic to California. Ranges along the coast and coast range mountains from Mendocino county to San Diego county. Co-exists with T. granulosa from Santa Cruz county to Mendocino county. A disjunct population is found in the southern Sierra Nevada from northern Kern county at Breckenridge Mountain north to a zone of intergradation (or hybridization) with the Sierra Newt along the Kaweah River in Tulare County. (Formerly newts throughout the Sierra Nevada were recognized as Sierra Newts.) |
| Habitat |
| Found in wet forests, oak forests, chaparral, and rolling grasslands. |
| Taxonomic Notes |
Two subspecies of Taricha torosa have been recognized, T. t. torosa, and T. t. sierrae.
In 2007, Shawn R. Kuchta1 determined that the two subspecies of Taricha torosa "constitute distinct evolutionary lineages and merit recognition as separate species: T. torosa (California newt) and T. sierrae (Sierra newt). " The contact zone between these two species is the southern Sierra Nevada with a "hybrid zone centered along the Kaweah River in Tulare County."
An isolated population of T. torosa in San Diego county has very warty skin and was once labelled as the subspecies T.t. klauberi, the Warty Newt, but the warty appearance was determined to be caused by disease.
Recent analysis2 has determined that these San Diego county newts are "genetically differentiated, demographically independent, geographically disjunct, and have a history of isolation relative to the coastal populations." |
| Conservation Issues (Conservation Status) |
| Southern California populations have suffered population declines due to human activity, and from introduced fish and crayfish. |
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Taxonomy |
| Family |
Salamandridae |
Newts |
| Genus |
Taricha |
Pacific Newts |
| Species |
torosa |
California Newt |
Subspecies
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torosa |
Coast Range Newt |
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Original Description |
Rathke, 1833 - in Eschscholtz, Zool. Atlas, Pt. 5, p. 12, pl. 21, fig. 15
from Original Description Citations for the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America © Ellin Beltz
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Meaning of the Scientific Name |
Taricha: Greek - preserved mummy, possibly referring to the rough skinned appearance.
torosa: Latin - full of muscle, fleshy.
from Scientific and Common Names of the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America - Explained © Ellin Beltz
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Alternate Names |
California Newt
Taricha torosa - California Newt
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Related California Salamanders |
Taricha torosa sierrae - Sierra Newt
Taricha rivularis - Red-bellied Newt
Taricha granulosa - Rough-skinned Newt
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More Information and References |
Natureserve Explorer
California Dept. of Fish and Game
AmphibiaWeb
Stebbins, Robert C. A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians. 3rd Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003.
Behler, John L., & F. Wayne King. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians. Alfred A. Knopf, 1992.
Bartlett, R. D. & Patricia P. Bartlett. Guide and Reference to the Amphibians of Western North America (North of Mexico) and Hawaii. University Press of Florida, 2009.
Bishop, Sherman C. Handbook of Salamanders. Cornell University Press, 1943.
Lannoo, Michael (Editor). Amphibian Declines: The Conservation Status of United States Species. University of California Press, June 2005.
Petranka, James W. Salamanders of the United States and Canada. Smithsonian Institution, 1998.
Jones, Lawrence L. C. , William P. Leonard, Deanna H. Olson, editors. Amphibians of the Pacific Northwest. Seattle Audubon Society, 2005.
1Herpetologica, 63(3), 2007, 332–350 E 2007 by The Herpetologists’ League, Inc.
Contact Zones and Species Limits: Hybridization Between Lineages of the California Newt, Taricha torosa, in the southern Sierra Nevada
Shawn R. Kuchta
2 Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2006, 89, 213–239. With 8 figures
Lineage diversification on an evolving landscape: phylogeography of the California newt, Taricha torosa (Caudata: Salamandridae)
Shawn R. Kuchta and An-Ming Tan
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The following status listings come from the Special Animals List which is published several times each year by the California Department of Fish and Game.
These listings refer to Coast Range Newts from Monterey County and south.
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Organization
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Status Listing
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| U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) |
None |
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| California Endangered Species Act (CESA) |
None |
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| California Department of Fish and Game |
DFG:SSC |
California Species of Special Concern |
| Bureau of Land Management |
None |
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| USDA Forest Service |
None |
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| Natureserve Global Conservation Status Ranks |
G5T4 S4 |
Secure |
World Conservation Union - IUCN Red List
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Range in California: Red
