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Anura: Dendrobatidae - Poison Frogs |
| Dendrobatid frogs range from Nicaragua to Ecuador, the Amazon basin, and southeastern Brazil. They are commonly called poison dart frogs, poison arrow frogs, or simply poison frogs. Most of these frogs are diurnal, calling from the edges of streams or even from extremely wet forest floors and are often brightly colored. However, it was discovered that captive frogs fed on fruit flies are not toxic, and that the wild populations are toxic because the poisons are obtained and stored from their prey. Most dendrobatids have parental care where the large yolked eggs are laid in a wet terrestrial site and attended by one or both of the parents. Upon hatching the tadpoles are transported to a stream or pool on the back of one of the parents. Most species are in the 20 to 50 mm range. The non-toxic, dull colored frogs that are in the genera Mannophryne have been recently moved to the family Aromobatidae. Dendrobatidae contains at least 10 currently named genera and about 161 species. |
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The Tinging Frog, Dendrobates tinctorius (Cuvier, 1797). This frog was previously known as Dendrobates azureus Hoogmoed, 1969. It inhabits the border region of Brazil, the Guianas, and Suriname. Habiat is lowland forests. A captive bred frog.
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Yellow Banded Poison-Arrow Frog, Dendrobates leucomelas Steindachner, 1864. Photograph of a captive bred animal. These frogs range from the Guianan Orinoco drainage of Venezuela northward to the Río Orinoco, eastward into Guyana to the Essequibo River, southward into northern Brazil, and west into eastern Colombia.
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The Strawberry Poison Frog, Oophaga pumilio (Schmidt, 1857), from northeast Costa Rica. Like most dendrobatids this is a diurnal species and the males are territorial and defend areas that are about 0.25 square meters to about 5 square meters. Eggs are laid in the leaf litter and attended by both sexes. Once the eggs hatch the female carries the tadpoles one by one to separate water-filled leaf axials. She then visits the tadpoles, laying unfertilized eggs in response to begging signals from the tadpoles, the eggs are eaten by the larvae. This frog has also been placed in the genus Dendrobates.
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