Dendrobatinae


Dendrobatinae is the main subfamily of frogs in the family Dendrobatidae, the poison dart frogs of Central and South America, found from Nicaragua to the Amazon basin in Brazil.

Description

Dendrobatinae are generally small frogs; Andinobates minutus is as small as in snout–vent length. Many species are brightly colored and all are toxic. Alkaloids in Phyllobates are particularly potent.
All species are presumed to show parental care, often by the male. However, some species show biparental care, whereas in Oophaga only females care for the tadpoles, feeding them with eggs, their only source of nutrition. The males are responsible for protecting the eggs from predation and keeping the eggs from drying out by urinating on them.

General

There are eight or seven genera in this subfamily:
ImageGenusLiving species
Adelphobates Grant, Frost, Caldwell, Gagliardo, Haddad, Kok, Means, Noonan, Schargel, and Wheeler, 2006
Andinobates Twomey, Brown, Amézquita, and Mejía-Vargas, 2011
  • Andinobates abditus
  • Andinobates altobueyensis
  • Andinobates bombetes
  • Andinobates cassidyhornae
  • Andinobates claudiae
  • Andinobates daleswansoni
  • Andinobates dorisswansonae
  • Andinobates fulguritus
  • Andinobates geminisae
  • Andinobates minutus
  • Andinobates opisthomelas
  • Andinobates tolimensis
  • Andinobates viridis
  • Andinobates virolinensis
    • Dendrobates Wagler, 1830
  • Dendrobates auratus – Green and black poison dart frog
  • Dendrobates leucomelas – Yellow-banded poison dart frog
  • Dendrobates nubeculosus Jungfer and Böhme 2004 - Rockstone poison dart frog
  • Dendrobates tinctorius – Dyeing dart frog
  • Dendrobates truncatus – Yellow-striped poison frog
    • Excidobates Twomey and Brown, 2008
  • Excidobates captivus - Santiago poison frog, Peru and Ecuador
  • Excidobates condor Almendáriz, Ron, and Brito M., 2012 - Ecuador
  • Excidobates mysteriosus - Marañón poison frog, Peru
    • Minyobates Myers, 1987
  • Minyobates steyermarki - demonic poison frog, demonic poison-arrow frog
    • Oophaga Bauer, 1994Oophaga arborea — Polkadot poison frogOophaga granulifera — Granular poison frogOophaga histrionica — Harlequin poison frogOophaga lehmanni — Lehmann's poison frogOophaga occultator — La Brea poison frogOophaga pumilio — Strawberry poison-dart frogOophaga speciosa — Splendid poison frogOophaga sylvatica — Diablito poison frogOophaga vicentei — Vicente's poison frog
    Phyllobates Duméril and Bibron, 1841P. lugubris species group
    P. bicolor species group
    Ranitomeya Bauer, 1986Ranitomeya aetherea Koch, Mônico, Dayrell, Ferreira, Dantas, Moravec, and Lima, 2025Ranitomeya amazonica Ranitomeya aquamarina Mônico, Koch, Dayrell, Moravec and Lima, 2025Ranitomeya benedicta Brown, Twomey, Pepper, and Sanchez-Rodriguez, 2008Ranitomeya cyanovittata Pérez-Peña, Chávez, Twomey, and Brown, 2010Ranitomeya defleri Twomey and Brown, 2009Ranitomeya fantastica Ranitomeya flavovittata Ranitomeya imitator Ranitomeya reticulata Ranitomeya sirensis Ranitomeya summersi Brown, Twomey, Pepper, and Sanchez-Rodriguez, 2008Ranitomeya toraro Brown, Caldwell, Twomey, Melo-Sampaio, and Souza, 2011Ranitomeya uakarii Ranitomeya vanzolinii Ranitomeya variabilis Ranitomeya ventrimaculata Ranitomeya yavaricola Pérez-Peña, Chávez, Twomey, and Brown, 2010
    The most specious genera are Ranitomeya and Andinobates. Dendrobates used to be much larger but currently contains only five species, having had most of its species split off into genera erected later.