Notophthalmus


Notophthalmus is a genus of newts. There are three species. The name derives from Greek νῶτον, meaning "back", and Greek ὀφθαλμός, meaning "eye".

Description

Notophthalmus species are East American newts similar in shape to the European newts. As a distinct characteristic of their own, both sexes have three to four large pores that lie in a row on the temple. The skin is smooth and soft in the water form and the tail is strongly flattened laterally. The back bar, on the other hand, is only narrow. Especially during the mating season, there is a clear sexual dimorphism: the males have very strong rut callosities consisting of 10 to 12 horn platelets on the inside of the hind legs, a strongly thickened tail as well as horny toe tips and a spherically arched cloaca. The latter is truncated conical in the females.

Species

Species recognized as of October 2019:
imageScientific nameCommon nameDistribution
Notophthalmus meridionalis black-spotted newtnortheastern Mexico and southern Texas
Notophthalmus perstriatus striped newtsouthern Georgia southward into central Florida
Notophthalmus viridescens eastern newteastern North America