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Latin Name: Notophthalmus viridescensSize: About three to five inches long (adult)Habitat: Ponds and damp forest floors in East Texas“Eye of newt and toe of frog,” chant three witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth as they tend to a foul, bubbling cauldron. In the Harry Potter books, NEWTs (Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests) are the equivalent of the dreaded SATs. And the titular heroine of Roald Dahl’s Matilda uses her magical powers to scare an evil headmistress with a newt. These stealthy amphibians conjure visions of sorcery for good reason: most of them are toxic. “Newts are absolutely something that could poison you,” says Matthew Kwiatkowski, a herpetologist at Stephen F. Austin State University, in Nacogdoches. So let’s get to know the eastern newt! What’s a newt, anyway?It’s a type…

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