ovulation and there egg sacs absorbing water. Very little happens to their appearance in the mating season. During this period males will be the first to enter the water, a trend shown with many salamanders, they will stay in the water until either April or May (this is called the aquatic phase). The preferable breeding habitat is strewn about with twigs and branches. The salamanders tend to be more attracted to thicker branches since it can hold more of them. Males will go out and find grounds for breeding, females who approach those breeding grounds are followed by males. When the females start to swim, males will bite and poke at each other. The females need to deliver their eggs and will gesture when they need to deliver them. A notable gesture could be restlessness, which will make males go closer to her. In every egg sac there is 80 to 140 eggs. (in slow moving water). Females lay in pairs, when the egg pair is delivered a male typically the first male to engage the female will get onto the sac, and to compete, more males will hope onto the sac, trying to fertilize it, inevitably creating a mating ball. This behavior is usually called the scramble competition. The Breeding can be broken down into 4 phases. Male Breeding Phases Phase 1 The wandering phase, the males walk at the bottom of the river/pond/tank (if in captivity) searching for branches that can hold the weight of at least several Oita Salamanders. Phase 2 The climbing phase, after they have found an adequate branch, the males board (climb) them. Sometimes the salamander -while grasping the twig- will stiffen their body which is associated with sexual excitement. This can be seen even after the salamander has deposited their sperm. Phase 3 The attraction/attention phase, tail fanning/swinging begins and their throats enlarge. This phase attracts females, which in turn attracts males. Tail swinging isn't found in any other species besides the Oita salamanders. Phase 4 The marking phase, the male marks their territory but rubbing their cloaca in the area they are tail fanning. References Sources Hynobius Amphibians described in 1931 Endemic amphibians of Japan Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxa named by Katsuya Tago