Dendrobates

Dendrobates is a genus of poison dart frogs native to Central and South America. It once contained numerous species, but most originally placed in this genus have been split off into other genera such as Adelphobates, Ameerega, Andinobates, Epipedobates, Excidobates, Oophaga, Phyllobates and Ranitomeya (essentially all the brightly marked poison dart frogs; i.e. excluding the duller genera in the family like Colostethus and Hyloxalus), leaving only five large to medium-sized species in the genus Dendrobates. All the other genera used to be grouped in with Dendrobates because it was previously thought that all brightly colored poison dart frogs came from the same ancestor but this has since been proven to be incorrect. Dendrobates and Phyllobates evolved conspicuous coloration from the same common ancestor but not the same as any of the other genera listed above.

There is accumulating evidence that Dendrobates are diet specialists and sequester the toxin found on their skin from their diet. It has been found that diet specialization evolved in tandem with conspicuous coloration in the case of Dendrobates.

The generic name Dendrobates is derived, meaning ‘tree climber’.

Dendrobates mostly live on the forest floor. They lay their eggs in damp leaf litter on the forest floor. After the eggs hatch, some species of Dendrobates carry their tadpoles on their backs up to the rainforest canopy so they can grow in the pools of water on top of Bromeliaceae, and feed their tadpoles with unfertilized eggs.