Dendrobates

The kind Dendrobates consists of several species S localized of the south of the Nicaragua, in the North-West of the Ecuador, in the east of the the Andes of the Colombia in the north of the Peru, with the Surinam, in French Guiana and with the Brésil. Dendrobates auratus moreover was introduced with Hawaii.

All the species of this kind were registered with appendix II of the Cites in order to control their marketing.

Description

The Anglo-Saxons gather the species of these various kinds under the name of " poison frogs " , or " poison dart frogs ". This popular name comes from the Batrachotoxine that these small frogs secrete on their skin, that certain Indian tribes would use to coat poison the point of their arrows ( dart ).

In practice, only three species of a nearby kind Phyllobates , whose Phyllobates terribilis , is really dangerous in nature. The other species cause simply reactions of irritation, especially if the poison which they secrete between in contact with the mucous membranes. Dendrobates thus do not deserve really this nickname of “ poison dart frogs ”.

As for the animals commercial, even Phyllobates, they are normally not dangerous. Indeed, in captivity, these frogs lose the essence of their toxicity. It is even truer for the animals born in captivity. The old and dominant theory (but really not proven a long time) wanted that their poison is of exogenic origin, i.e. produced out of their body. It would come from toxic insects themselves, of which they are nourished. Nobody still not making the breeding of such insects to nourish its boarders, those thus lose rather quickly to them toxicité.
At the beginning of 2004, of work were published indicating that reality is a little bit more complex: the dendrobates (like other Dendrobatidés) need indeed to get the Alcaloïde S basic for their poison in the insects which they drive out. But they do not use all alkaloids thus collected such as they are. A research team American, carried out by John Cover, of the national Aquarium of Baltimore (the United States), succeeded in showing at dendrobates the presence of a Hydroxylase able to transform an alkaloid given into a compound five times more dangerous (article).

The dendrobates make 2 to 6 cm (on average 4 cm), and often are very coloured. These colors, far from being a camouflage, are a signal enabling them to be located by the predatory ones. Those know their dreadful taste, even their dangerosity, and thus avoid them.

The dendrobates live in the rain forests of Central America and South America. They live especially on the level of the ground. Certain species have a temperament of climbing, and go up readily on the trees. But the dendrobates are not truly the arboricolous ones.

Here some species:

Dendrobates auratus comes from Central America and the north of Colombia. 3-4 cm.
Dendrobates azureus comes from Suriname, or the frontier Brazilian areas. 4-5 cm.
Dendrobates leucomelas comes from certain areas of Brazil, of Colombia, of Guyana, and especially of Venezuela. 3-4 cm.
Dendrobates ventrimaculatus comes from Peruvian, Ecuadorian Amazonia and areas bordering Brazilian, as well as French Guiana. 2 cm.

These species live in plain or at low altitude.

List species

Dendrobates abditus Myers and Daly, 1976.
Dendrobates altobueyensis Silverstone, 1975.
Dendrobates amazonicus Schulte, 1999.
Dendrobates arboreus Myers, Daly, and Martinez, 1984.
Dendrobates auratus (Girard, 1855).
Dendrobates azureus Hoogmoed, 1969.
Dendrobates biolat Morals, 1992.
Dendrobates bombetes Myers and Daly, 1980.
Dendrobates captivus Myers, 1982.
Dendrobates castaneoticus Caldwell and Myers, 1990.
Dendrobates claudiae Jungfer, Lötters, and Jörgens, 2000.
Dendrobates duellmani Schulte, 1999.
Dendrobates fantasticus Boulenger, 1884.
Dendrobates flavovittatus Schulte, 1999.
Dendrobates fulguritus Silverstone, 1975.
Dendrobates galactonotus Steindachner, 1864.
Dendrobates granuliferus Taylor, 1958.
Dendrobates histrionicus Berthold, 1845.
Dendrobates imitator Schulte, 1986.
Dendrobates lamasi Morals, 1992.
Dendrobates lehmanni Myers and Daly, 1976.
Dendrobates leucomelas Steindachner, 1864.
Dendrobates minutus Shreve, 1935.
Dendrobates mysteriosus Myers, 1982.
Dendrobates occultator Myers and Daly, 1976.
Dendrobates opisthomelas Boulenger, 1899.
Dendrobates pumilio Schmidt, 1857.
Dendrobates quinquevittatus Steindachner, 1864.
Dendrobates reticulatus Boulenger, 1884.
Dendrobates rubrocephalus Schulte, 1999.
Dendrobates sirensis Aichinger, 1991.
Dendrobates speciosus Schmidt, 1857.
Dendrobates steyermarki Rivero, 1971.
Dendrobates tinctorius (Schneider, 1799) - Dendrobate with tapirer.
Dendrobates truncatus (Cope, 1861).
Dendrobates vanzolinii Myers, 1982.
Dendrobates variabilis Zimmermann and Zimmermann, 1988.
Dendrobates ventrimaculatus Shreve, 1935 - Dendrobate with belly mottled.
Dendrobates vicentei Jungfer, Weygoldt and Juraske, 1996.
Dendrobates viridis Myers and Daly, 1976.
Dendrobates virolinensis (Ruiz-Carranza and Ramirez-Pinilla, 1992).

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