Editing Smooth newt (section)

===General characteristics===

Adult males of the smooth newt reach around {{cvt|9–11|cm|in|abbr=on}} head-to-tail length and are thus slightly larger than the females, which reach {{cvt|8–9.5|cm|in|abbr=on}}. The body weight of adults varies between {{cvt|0.3|-|5.2|g}}, and decreases during the breeding season. The head is longer than it is wide, with 2–3 longitudinal grooves on the top, and the elongated snout is blunt in the male and rounded in the female. The skin is velvety and water-repellent on land but smooth during the aquatic phase; it contains [[mucus]] and [[toxin]] glands and its upper layer is [[moulting|shed off]] regularly.{{r|1=Grosse2011|p1=80–93|2=Sparreboom2014|p2=233–234}}

Outside the breeding season, both sexes are yellow-brown, brown or olive-brown. The male has dark, round spots, while the female has smaller spots of the same colour, which sometimes form two or more irregular lines along the back. The male has an orange strip on the tail underside, and the throat and belly in males are orange to white with small dark, rounded spots (these are lighter with smaller spots in the female). Size and colour vary with the environment, and the newts tend to be smaller in northern latitudes.{{r|1=Grosse2011|p1=80–93|2=Sparreboom2014|p2=233–234}} [[Albinistic]] and [[leucistic]] individuals have been described.{{r|Grosse2011|p=94|Modesti2011}}

The smooth newt is [[diploid]] (i.e. it has two copies of each [[chromosome]]), with 24 chromosomes in total.{{r|Grosse2011|p=107}}