by dampflippers on Fri May 18, 2007 10:47 am
Tie it onto a stone so it sinks.
The egg was on forgetmenot. Most of the plants had been above water level, but I tied some of the young plants togeter with string and weighted them down so the leaves were just below the surface.
From watching them last year in an aquarium (I let them out after I had seen them laying) if there is noting they can fold them in, they will stick them on to any plant.
To me it looked as if they expell the egg, but it is sticky so it sticks to the body first. Then they use their back legs to try and wipe it off onto something. If it folds over it is all done neatly, if it doesn't fold it will just stick on eg to hornwort. I could clearly see little white eggs in jelly just attached to the surface of plants. Obviously these are less well hidden and more open to predation.
Dave, have you tried dipping a little jar in amongst the weed to see if you have any babies? I now get one in almost every dip.
By the way, I don't see my newts very often now, so I think the majority of laying is over.
I'll try to post pics of a folded leaf and a female (I am putting them on gallery at garden web to do this)