Abstract:Although Red Knobby Newts (Tylototriton shanjing) has been listed as National Grade Ⅱ protected species in China, its breeding ecology information have not been well reported, yet. We conducted a study on its reproductive characteristics, including sexual morphological difference, breeding habitat use, courtship and mating behavior, egg laying and hatching, in breeding seasons of 2007-2010 at Xinping County in Ailao Mountain range, Yunnan Province. The morphological measurement of male and female was difference. They bred mainly in rice paddies and humid ditches. The sex ratio of breeding individuals changed with breeding period, more males in the earlier and later of breeding season, while more females in the middle breeding phase. They made courtship mainly in the shady humid ditch although they also completed courtship and mating in lentic water. Female layed eggs 1-2 day after mating and gave 126±18 eggs (n=17) in 22.2±2.7 hours (n=15) in average with 1-3 min interval between each egg from early May through late June. In the early breeding season, females laid their eggs into water with 4-10 cm deep against the terrace of rice paddy, however, after middle May female laid eggs in grassy seepage areas of the rice paddy ridge. The mean clutch size was 126±18(n=17), average hatching period 17.3±0.1 d (n=225) with a estimated hatching rate of 59.8%(n=79). The average body length of the hatchling was 12.7 mm(n=6).