Nature Park of Tecchie - Province of Pesaro and Urbino

This species is only found in the Italian Apennines. It is an amphibian belonging to the Urodela group and measures up to 11 cm in length, with a slender body and warty back.
It has a creamy white, V-shaped mark between the eyes resembling a pair of spectacles hence the name.
It has a rather large head and protruding eyes, and a tail which is longer than the head and body. The upper parts are brownish or blackish with triangular-shaped yellow or vermilion coloured spots on the head. The underside is light with dark marks, the throat is black and the lower parts of the tail are a bright red in adults.
Its natural habitats are temperate forests, rivers and freshwater marshes. It is typically terrestrial, nocturnal and active when the weather is cloudy and rainy.
It inhabits broad-leaved woods with ample clearings and thick forest litter and can sometimes be found close to towns, fields and gardens.
The sites for reproduction are water wells, ditches, drinking troughs and often stretches and weak currents of small torrents of water with rich shrub vegetation along the river bank.
Between March and May the females migrate towards the reproductive sites and lay between 30–50 eggs which attach themselves to the substratum or submerged vegetation.
Sexual maturity is reached at a length of 70 mm. At a year old the salamanders already have their permanent colouring.
Larvae and adults feed on small invertebrates. These salamanders are in turn preyed on especially by crustaceans and the larvae of large insects, by small mammals, snakes and fish.