Siberian angle-toothed newt
| Siberian angle-toothed newt | ||||||||||||
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Siberian angle-toothed newt ( Salamandrella keyserlingii ), illustration |
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| Salamandrella keyserlingii | ||||||||||||
| Dybowski , 1870 |
The Siberian angle tooth pig ( salamandrella keyserlingii ) is a salamander from the family of Asiatic salamander and forms a distinct of two species of the genus salamandrella . In older systematics it is still counted to the genus Hynobius .
features
The Siberian angular newt is 13 (females) to 16 centimeters (males) long and is quite sturdy. The hind feet only have four instead of five toes, like usually only the Italian salamander with glasses . The head is separated from the trunk; the eyes protrude "frog-like". At the back of the head there are parotids , similar to the fire salamander or the toad . The trunk has 12 to 15 distinct vertical side furrows. The tail is rounded at the root, but laterally flattened towards the tip and keeled at the top. Its length is less than that of the trunk and head combined. Characteristic is a thin black eel line on the middle of the back, which is bordered by bronze-colored longitudinal bands, which in turn are bounded by dark, marbled flanks. The ventral side is whitish-gray and spotted, the throat flesh-colored. The skin appears smooth and shiny. Within the huge distribution area there is a great variability in body proportions, colors and drawings.
Occurrence
In addition to two local find areas on the European side of the Ural mountain range (around 44 degrees east longitude; area of Nizhny Novgorod as well as Syktywkar and Arkhangelsk ), the Siberian angular newt comes in the Asian part of Russia to the Sea of Okhotsk in the east with the Kamchatka peninsula , the Sakhalin Island and the Kuril Islands. The southern border of the distribution area is formed by northern Mongolia and Manchuria in northeast China . The species is also represented on the Japanese north island of Hokkaidō . Populations in south-east Siberia are now assigned to a separate taxon, which is considered either as a subspecies or as a separate species ( Salamandrella tridactyla ).
Salamandrella keyserlingii is the only salamander to cross 66 degrees north of latitude and is even found not far from the climatological cold pole of the northern hemisphere near Verkhoyansk . For amphibians, the species shows extreme frugality with regard to freezing temperatures and also survives longer cold phases from −35 to −40 ° C.
Habitat and way of life
The Siberian angle-toothed newt lives in swamp areas, in forest clearings and on damp meadows, where it stays under moss, fallen leaves or tree stumps near its spawning waters. Floodponds, calm flowing waters and larger, herb-rich still waters, but also the smallest accumulations of water of various types, serve as such. In the Siberian permafrost area , the summer activity period is extremely short. From the end of September the animals look for hibernation deep in the ground or in rotten tree trunks when they are resting. This phase can take between 160 and 220 days, depending on the area. At an outside temperature of 0.5 to 1 ° C, they are able to move and become active again.
The diet of the Siberian angular newts consists of insects and their larvae , earthworms , nudibranchs , spiders and river fleas and is preyed on at night.
Reproduction
From a water temperature of 3 ° C, the newts can be found in the spawning waters during the snowmelt between April and June. Before mating, the male is "pelting" the female with his oars tail, which was lined with flippers at the time, and "dancing around" for a long time. However, the actual act of reproduction has not been adequately researched. It is assumed, on the one hand, that, as with all species of the angular newts, external fertilization of the spawned by the female takes place. On the other hand, it is reported that the female in her cloaca ingests several clumps of sperm deposited by the male and that this semen is kept until the next year. In the following year, the female is supposed to put two gelatinous, spirally wound "ice bags" into the water, about four to a maximum of 37 centimeters long. A little later there is another courtship with a male and the sperm delivery for the next year. After an embryonic phase of two to five weeks , the larvae hatch and now need six to ten weeks for metamorphosis when they are one centimeter in size . After a year the young are about three centimeters tall; sexual maturity occurs at two or three years of age.
swell
literature
- Andreas Nöllert & Christel Nöllert: The amphibians of Europe. - Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart, 1992. ISBN 3-440-06340-2
Individual evidence
- ↑ Malyarchuk, BA, M. Derenko, DI Berman, M. Perkova, T. Grzybowski, AN Lejrikh & NA Bulakhova: Phylogeography and molecular adaptation of Siberian salamander Salamandrella keyserlingii based on mitochondrial DNA variation. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 56 (2010): 562-571.