The Red Eft: A Snapshot in the Lifecycle of the Eastern Newt

I remember hearing once about a drunken man dying after ingesting a red eft (Notophthalmus viridescens). I've since been unable to verify the claim, but if you know what they look like it's not hard to see how a story like this might get started. Red efts share the bright coloration common to many toxic species. It's not a bluff, they are toxic, but the eft is only a snapshot of the species.

Efts are a stage in the life cycle of the Eastern Newt. This species also goes by the common name "Red spotted" newt, and are sometimes sold as pets under this name. Like most salamanders, these guys start out as gilled larvae hatched from eggs in the water. In general, the larvae then develop lungs and live on land as efts for a few years before returning to the water as adult newts. As the efts move into an aquatic environment, they go through morphological changes such as flattening of their tails so they are better suited for moving through the water. The adults are greenish and no longer bright orange, but often retain the red spots running along their sides. They are not as toxic as the efts, but it's enough to deter predators.

The Newt life cycle has been known to vary. Larvae occasionally develop into aquatic adults and skip the eft stage, and efts occasionally mature on land and only return to the water to breed. Either way, from a species perspective this can be a very effective strategy. Let's assume that at a given area in a given time, there are Red Spotted Newts at all different stages of the life cycle. Efts are wandering around the forest and Newts are swimming around the water bodies. If something were to happen to the water body one season, say an extreme drought or some temporary form of pollution, and this devastates the newt population, in a few years the population may be able to bounce back, as efts that were living on land at the time come to maturity and return to the water to breed. It's kind of like having reproduction insurance.

Red spotted newts (and therefore efts) are found throughout the eastern United States. From personal experience, I always seem to find them where there is Mountain Laurel (Kamia latifolia) growing. Sometimes they are under logs, and at other times, they are bodily stumbling around the forest, their bright coloration warning away hungry predators.