Museum of Living Art - Species List

Black-spotted newts
(Notophthalmus meridionalis)

These amphibians are aquatic, but can live under rocks or logs when water is scarce. They are very solitary. Typically they grow to be 5 inches and have black spots with a yellow and orange striped belly. They use their belly as a defense mechanism, contracting into an "s" shape and flipping onto their belly showing the colors typically associated with poison. Its range in Texas has become greatly reduced and fragmented in recent years.

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