The Wisconsin Herp Atlas provides the geographic distribution of each species. The adults are black to blue-black in color and are flecked with torquiose. Newly metamorphised individuals have yellow spots. The spots closest to the head are usually orange. They inhabit boreal, pine, and northern mesic forest.
Breeding occurs roughly three days later than the blue-spotted salamander.
The color pattern can be highly variable, but it most often th animal has a dark black or green back and sides covered with irregular yellow blotches and an olive-yellow belly. Interestingly, some populations are neotonic, reaching sexual maturity while still in the aquatic larval form. They prefer to breed in prairie ponds and woodland marshes. Adults are olive green to yellow in coloration with two distict rows of red spots. The Eastern newt has four stages in it's lifecycle.