Dendrobatinae

Dendrobatinae
Dyeing dart frog, Dendrobates tinctorius.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Anura
Family: Dendrobatidae
Subfamily: Dendrobatinae
Cope, 1865
Genera

Adelphobates
Andinobates
Dendrobates
Excidobates
Minyobates
Oophaga
Phyllobates
Ranitomeya

Dendrobatinae is the main subfamily of frogs in the Dendrobatidae family, the poison dart frogs from Central and South America, from Nicaragua to the Amazon Basin in Brazil.[1]

Description

Dendrobatinae are generally small frogs; Andinobates minutus is as small as 13–16 mm (0.51–0.63 in) in snout–vent length. Many species are brightly colored and all are toxic. Alkaloids in Phyllobates are particularly potent.[2][3]

All species are presumed to show parental care, often by the male. However, some species show biparental care (Ranitomeya), whereas in Oophaga only females care for the tadpoles, feeding them with eggs, their only source of nutrition.[2] The males are responsible for protecting the eggs from predation and keeping the eggs from drying out by urinating on them.[4]

Genera

There are eight[1][2] or seven[3] genera in this subfamily:

The most specious genera are Ranitomeya (16 species) and Andinobates (13 species).[1] Dendrobates used to be much larger but now contains only five species, having "lost" may species to genera erected later.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Frost, Darrel R. (2014). "Dendrobatinae Cope, 1865". Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference. Version 6.0. American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 Vitt, Laurie J.; Caldwell, Janalee P. (2014). Herpetology: An Introductory Biology of Amphibians and Reptiles (4th ed.). Academic Press. p. 489–490.
  3. 1 2 "Dendrobatidae". AmphibiaWeb: Information on amphibian biology and conservation. [web application]. Berkeley, California: AmphibiaWeb. 2014. Retrieved 13 September 2014. AmphibiaWeb is not placing Andinobates in any subfamily.
  4. Brust, D. G. (1993). "Maternal Brood Care by Dendrobates pumilio: A Frog that Feeds its Young", Journal of Herpetology. Vol. 27, No. 1. pp. 96-98.
  5. Grant, T., Frost, D. R., Caldwell, J. P., Gagliardo, R., Haddad, C. F. B., Kok, P. J. R., Means, D. B., Noonan, B. P., Schargel, W. E., and Wheeler, W. C. (2006). "Phylogenetic systematics of dart-poison frogs and their relatives (Amphibia: Athesphatanura: Dendrobatidae)" (PDF). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 299: 1–262. doi:10.1206/0003-0090(2006)299[1:PSODFA]2.0.CO;2.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, October 01, 2014. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.