After a year or more in the eft stage they transform again, becoming aquatic adults. Their colors change to olive-green above and yellow below with varying amounts of red and black spots. Although aquatic, they still breathe with lungs although they do absorb some oxygen through their skins. The gilled larvae are similar in color to the sand or rocks on the bottom of the pond or stream. In their terrestrial stages, Western newts have drier, rougher skin than most other salamanders.
Salamanders are amphibians.
They have moist, often slimy skin, with no scales, and with no claws on their toes. Amphibians hatch from shell-less eggs laid in water or moist places, and have a larval stage that usually differs structurally from the adult animal. Lizards are reptiles. They have dry skin covered with scales, and claws on their toes. They hatch from shelled eggs laid on land, or are born alive from eggs retained within the mother's body.