The crested newt was first mentioned in print by the renowned Swiss naturalist C. Gesner in 1553. He called it the "water lizard." The first word “newt” to designate the genus of tailed amphibians was used by I. Laurenti, an Austrian naturalist (1768).
External features
The comb newt got its name for the high comb located on the back of the male. It differs from the pond newt in size (it is much larger) and, of course, in a high, serrated crest. In combination with bright colors, these features make the animal one of the most beautiful inhabitants of aquariums.
The maximum total length of the lizard is 153 mm (including the body length slightly more than 80 mm). In some European countries, individuals up to 200 mm are found. The largest recorded weight is 14.3 grams.
The crested newt, whose photo often adorns the covers of magazines for aquarists, has a wide and flattened head, a massive body. Palatine teeth are two almost parallel rows.
The skin on the back is coarse-grained, on the abdomen - smooth. In the mating season, the male crest is serrated, high, with a notch sharply isolated from the tail. The tail may be slightly shorter, but more often equal to the length of the body. There are no nicks on the tail crest. The abdomen is colored in orange or orange-yellow with black spots. The throat is black at the edges of the jaws and orange-yellow at the base.
Color
On the throat and on the sides of the body are clearly visible numerous white small dots. In males, in the middle of the tail and its sides, a pearly or pale blue wide strip is visible. It begins with the base of the tail, where it is a blurry line, and ends with a bright, with clearly visible borders, on the tip.
Females do not have a crest on the back, and the blue strip on the sides of the tail is weakly visible or completely absent. Along the middle of the back there is sometimes a narrow reddish or yellowish line. The eyes are usually golden orange with a black pupil. The fingertips are yellow or orange.
Does one blood circulation have a newt comb?
This question is of interest to many beginner aquarists. Let us dwell on it in more detail. The circulatory system of this lizard is closed, the heart is three-chambered. Blood mixes in the ventricle (the exception is only pulmonary salamander, in which the heart is bicameral). The body temperature of the animal directly depends on the temperature of the surrounding air or water.
Triton is comb-shaped. The blood circulation of the second is associated with the acquired possibility of pulmonary respiration. The heart has two atria (in the right, the blood is mainly venous, mixed, in the left - arterial) one ventricle, the walls of which form folds that prevent the mixing of arterial and venous blood. From the ventricle comes an arterial cone having a spiral valve.
Pulmonary is a small circle. It begins with cutaneous pulmonary arteries that deliver blood to the lungs and skin. Blood, well enriched with oxygen, is collected from the lungs into the pulmonary paired veins that flow into the atrium (left).
The large circle begins with arches of the aorta and carotid arteries, which are located in organs and tissues. Through paired anterior veins and an unpaired posterior vein, venous blood enters the right atrium. Oxidized blood also enters the vena cava anterior veins, therefore, the blood in the right atrium is mixed.
Type of digestion in comb newt
All amphibians, and the hero of our article, including, eat exclusively mobile food. At the bottom of their oropharynx is the tongue. On the jaws are teeth that serve to hold prey.
In the oropharyngeal cavity, there are ducts of the salivary glands, the secret of which has no digestive enzymes. Next, food enters the stomach through the esophagus, and then into the duodenum. The ducts of the pancreas and liver come here. Digestion occurs in the duodenum and stomach. The small intestine leads to the rectum.
Vivo lifestyle
The crested newt, the photo of which you see in our article, lives in small-leaved, mixed and broad-leaved forests, near water bodies. He can live outside forests in open meadows, with small sections of shrubs, in floodplain areas of lakes and rivers, in swamps. The condition for the lizard to penetrate into urban areas can be quite deep (at least 0.5 m) unpolluted water bodies with slowly flowing or standing water.
The crested newt leads a nocturnal lifestyle on land. And in the afternoon he goes into the water. Most of the time he prefers to live on land. Only in summer and spring in the mating season leads an aquatic lifestyle. Every ten days, a newt sheds in water. The skin discarded by him remains completely intact, but it is always turned inside out. This beautiful lizard does not like bright light, the sun, and does not tolerate heat very well. A newt swims, pressing its paws to its sides. He uses them as a helm. The forward movement provides the tail.
Hibernation and hibernation
The crested newt leaves for wintering in late October or early November, when the air temperature does not exceed +6 0 . It settles in heaps of gravel, vegetable rags, in high marshes, in basements of apartment buildings, in soil cracks, on railway embankments. The newt hibernates both alone and in groups, sometimes even in fairly large clusters. Leaves from hibernation in March-May.
In spring and early summer, she prefers to settle in forest lakes, ponds, elders. After breeding (in the middle of summer) it passes to land, where it finds wet and shady places for itself.
Most active on land at dusk, in the water is active in the afternoon. It tolerates low temperatures - it is mobile at temperatures just above 0 ° C. Active in water at temperatures from +5 to + 28 ° C.
Captive, feeding
For such a pet, you will need a horizontal type terrarium. For 1-2 individuals, it should be a capacity of at least 20 liters.
The terrarium should be equipped with local daytime heating. At the warming-up point in the daytime, the temperature should reach + 28 ° , the average background temperature in the whole terrarium is 16-20 ° - at night and 18-22 ° - during the day. In the terrarium on the surface of the water should be a raft. Keep these beauties in small groups.
We have already mentioned that under natural conditions this lizard eats aquatic invertebrates, somewhat larger than its usual pond relative eats. And what does comb triton eat at home? In the terrarium, he is fed with banana, house and other crickets, flour worms, cockroaches, shellfish, earthworms. In water, you can give bloodworms, snails, tubule.
Among feeds, preference should be given to mollusks, water bugs, and insect larvae. Often triton eats tadpoles and amphibian eggs. On land, your pets ’diet should include slugs, earthworms, and various insects. The crested newt is characterized by poor eyesight, so it can catch the prey that swims very close to it, and the newt can smell its prey.
Interesting features of the newt
This is a very interesting pet - comb triton. Interesting facts about these lizards are often published by animal publications. It is noteworthy that the newt is able to change its color, like chameleons, but to a slightly lesser extent.
We have already said that newts do not see well, so fishing for them is very difficult. They are unable to catch fast animals, so in vivo they often have to starve.
Tritons are also interesting for their amazing ability to restore the lost parts of their body (regenerate). A limb completely cut off at the newt grows again. The naturalist Spalanzani conducted very cruel experiments on these animals. He cut off their tails, legs, gouged out his eyes, etc. As a result, all these parts were fully restored. Often this happened several times in a row. Blumenbach once cut out almost the entire eye of a newt, leaving only 1/5 of its part. Ten months later, he was convinced that the newt had a new eye, however, it differed from the previous one in a smaller size. The limbs and tail are usually restored to the same sizes as the lost ones.