# Preliminary Pumilio Research Finds - Lots of Pics included



## MonarchzMan (Oct 23, 2006)

So I've still got to analyze all of the data that I took for my microhabitat study, but I thought I'd give you guys some of the results that I've found thus far. And it's a good excuse to post some pictures of pretty frogs  I've got video on most of populations that I visited, which I'll post once I can get them on YouTube so you can see habitat that the frogs are found in. As is, I'll post the temperature, humidity and adult SVL ranges I found with the frogs. Later on once data are analyzed, I can post habitat specializations and behavior differences among the morphs (and there does seem to be differentiation between morphs). A caveat to these data, some data were taken when raining (hence the high humidity) or potentially in the sun (I tried to keep the probe in the shade, but I think that sometimes it was hit by a lingering ray). The size ranges are also of frogs found in situ; there is no way to know age, which is the reason for the variance. If I could sex them, I counted the size as "adult." FN means number of frogs which I got data on and TN means number of transects I did.

*Bastimentos Cemetery (FN: 25 TN: 9)*
These pictures show the variation of this morph; all of which occur together; although the green/yellow variations seem to be relatively rare
Temperature Range: 26.5C - 32.6C Humidity Range: 74% - 86% Size Range: 17.8mm - 20.9mm










































*Isla Colon - La Gruta (FN: 19 TN:8 )*
This morph's spots tend to be larger reminiscent of Bastimentos Cemetery, and the legs vary from dull orange to gray to grayish-blue
Temperature Range: 25.1C - 30.1C Humidity Range: 75% - 94% Size Range: 16.8mm - 20.2mm


















*Isla Colon - Bocas del Drago*
This morph has finer spots and brighter orange legs than that of La Gruta. Also the feet aren't really purple but off white, that color is just a result of photoshop Auto Levels; all other colors are true to life
Did not record data on this morph










*Isla Solarte (FN: 37 TN: 8 )*
Temperature Range: 25.1C - 30.0C Humidity Range: 75% - 95% Size Range: 16.3mm - 18.8mm










*Isla Solarte - Yellow Form*
Did not record data on this morph; this is NOT a separate morph but a very rare genetic anomaly among the orange Solartes (probably less than 1% of the population that I sampled). 










*Almirante (FN: 31 TN: 9)*
Temperature Range: 25.9C - 29.2C Humidity Range: 72% - 89% Size Range: 16.2mm - 20.3mm










*Aguacate (FN: 27 TN:8 )*
Temperature Range: 24.3C - 33.1C Humidity Range: 60% - 97% Size Range: 14.4mm - 20mm










*San Cristobal*
Did not record data on this morph










*Isla Popa North (FN: 19 TN: 8 )*
Temperature Range: 26.5C - 28.5C Humidity Range: 80% - 94% Size Range: 13.8mm - 15.3mm










*Isla Popa South (FN: 36 TN: 8 )*
Most have fine spots on their backs. Relatively few are spotless.
Temperature Range: 26.0C - 29.9C Humidity Range: 63% - 93% Size Range: 15.7mm - 19.1mm










*Cayo de Agua (FN: 21 TN: 9)*
This morph is different from Popa South in that the legs are bluer and these frogs rarely have spots on their backs
Temperature Range: 24.2C - 36.0C Humidity Range: 72% - 93% Size Range: 15.3mm - 17.6mm










This is just a cool _unposed_ picture of a Cayo de Agua next to an adult Minyobates claudae to give you an idea of the size of the latter: TINY!










*Shepherd's Island (FN: 68 TN: 8 )*
This morph varies from green to brown body color (very variable as far as internal color like spots and streaks) and orangish-brown legs. Some, in very rare instances, frogs appear with bright orange patches on the body.
Temperature Range: 26.5C - 34.6C Humidity Range: 64% - 99% Size Range: 15.2mm - 18.3mm


















*Pelican Cay*
This morph seems to be fairly consistent with green bodies and greenish-brown legs.
Did not record data on this morph










And the Grand Finale, which I am very excited about. This is NOT Escudo de Veraguas. Adults are around 15-16mm.


















A new morph which I'll be able to describe, barring verification of course, but essentially I went looking for green frogs and found blue and red ones. I can't reveal where they are yet, though until I verify everything.

I'm hoping that I'll get back to get data on all of the morphs to have a complete and comprehensive study on Dendrobates pumilio microhabitat use.


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## Corpus Callosum (Apr 7, 2007)

Those Cayo's sure can take some heat.. thanks for all the effort, great data.


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## flyingkip (Jan 9, 2005)

Nice pictures. I'm very interested in the movies you made about their habitat.

I've seen that red&blue frog before. 
Is it possible that it's the 'Melci' at the bottom of this page? Those are 12-13mm apparently.
http://www.tropical-experience.nl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=78&Itemid=85

Grtz,
Thomas


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## MonarchzMan (Oct 23, 2006)

Nope, they're not the Melci's to my knowledge. They don't fit the description of any morph I've seen either color wise or due to size. I measured 10 of them, and none of them got below 14.5mm, which I think is too big for most of the similar morphs that have been described.

I'm also skeptical about Tropical Experience's site because it makes out there to be more morphs than there actually are. For instance, the yellow Solarte is not a geographically isolated morph but a rare anomaly that happens in the orange population. TE makes it out to be something separate :?


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## Jungle_John (Feb 19, 2007)

thats very cool man and good picture.


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## jmoose (Jun 21, 2006)

Great pics and detailed info. Thanks

So the temp range is somewhere bet. 24C (75F) to 36C (96F) :shock: 
Wow, I knew they can take/prefer warmer temp, but the range is way beyond my expectation 
Are they daytime Hi and night time Lo ?
and taken at the ground level where frogs are hanging around ?
Do you think the temps are so high because of the season you visited or all year around ?
I think I have to rase pum's viv temp a little higher

The last two pics of Pelican Cay are amazing !!!

Thanks


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## MonarchzMan (Oct 23, 2006)

The temperatures were taken at ground level where frogs were (I had the temperature probe on my backpack, and often had frogs pay no mind to it and jump right on the backpack, lol). I was going to say that the 36C record was a bit of a blunder on my part as it was probably left in the sun, but looking at that particular transect, it was cloudy with occasional sprinkles, so I think that that's true!

The average temperatures fall between 27C and 29C for these morphs. If you're going to have it at ideal temp for any of these morphs, I would set it at that range. The high and lows seem to be spikes. These data were taken when I sampled the frogs, so it went from 9:00AM to 5:30PM. I didn't get night time temperatures, unfortunately, but I'm pretty sure they're towards the low end of that range (24C-25C).

The last two pictures aren't pelican cay. They're this potential new morph I found, whose location I want to keep secret until I know for sure.


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## sbreland (May 4, 2006)

Maybe I have an answer for you, but maybe not. The mystery frog looks similar to what some call Esperanza. Esperanza are a variation of Darklands with varying amounts of red to purple on them. If these were located anywhere near the Darkland locality that may be an answer. If not, keep us posted on the identification findings


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## MonarchzMan (Oct 23, 2006)

sbreland said:


> Maybe I have an answer for you, but maybe not. The mystery frog looks similar to what some call Esperanza. Esperanza are a variation of Darklands with varying amounts of red to purple on them. If these were located anywhere near the Darkland locality that may be an answer. If not, keep us posted on the identification findings


Nope, they weren't found on the Darklands/Aguacate peninsula. I need to get back and get some samples of those and the Escudos to see how closely related these are. I'm trying to figure out where exactly "Esperanza" is. Any ideas?

When I showed my prof these pictures, he also thought they were the blue and red Aguacates, but when I told him where I collected them from, his response was "WOW!"  Like I said, I went looking for green frogs and found blue and red ones. Supposedly there are green frogs in that area, so I want to see where they occur and if there's any sort of integrate between the green ones and the red/blue ones.


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## Anoleo2 (Feb 1, 2006)

Very cool. Must be quite an experience seeing all these beautiful frogs in the wild and in thier natural habitats.

Thanks


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## Ben E (Oct 1, 2004)

that minyobates looks a lot like a young lugubris no? were there lugubris there as well?


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## MonarchzMan (Oct 23, 2006)

Yea, they do look very similar, but the lugubris were relatively rare whereas the minyobates were very common. I had to look at the throats to begin with when I saw these tiny frogs (I believe the minyobates have blue in the throat; lugubris have black throat; it could be the other way around, can't quite remember). I don't believe that the lugubris get that center stripe. They were variable from not stripe to a stripe; most were broken striped or no stripe, though.


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## jmoose (Jun 21, 2006)

Thanks again MonarchzMan !

I, too, can not wait to see your habitat video - make sure let us know when they are ready

Oh as for the last frog, why don't you name it D. pumilio "MonarchzMan" just like Tinc Patricia :wink:


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## ebrady (Jun 14, 2007)

how many morphs are there of pumilio? your pictures have given me this sudden love for pumilios


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## sam (Nov 16, 2006)

Some excellent work there mate, well done :wink:


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## kyle1745 (Feb 15, 2004)

Great stuff, and great pictures. Thank you for sharing.

The temps are a bit hotter than I would have thought.


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## MonarchzMan (Oct 23, 2006)

ebrady said:


> how many morphs are there of pumilio? your pictures have given me this sudden love for pumilios


Most of the literatures says there are 15 morphs, but the funny thing about that is that just about every paper that has looked at 15 morphs, hasn't looked at the same morphs :lol:

I'm guessing there are around 25 morphs in total. Just in the Bocas region, that is. I'm guessing there are probably 5-7 (maybe more) more morphs in Nicaragua and Costa Rica. When I say morph, I'm mean a population that is visually different and/or geographically isolated from other populations. There seems to be a trend where people want to call everything a separate morph (for example, green dust, yellow dust, orange, and red are all different colors of the Bastimentos Cemetery morph, not separate morphs themselves; sometimes that distinction isn't made entirely clear). A lot of literature hardly consider the Pelican Cay and the Shepherd's island morph to be different, but I'd disagree because there are differences, albeit minute ones.

If you look at the Tropical-experience website, it'll give you an idea of the variety that is out there for pumilio. I'd ideally like to have some of each morph for observation; but I think that'd be difficult as far as permits go; not to mention that some are difficult to care for for whatever reason. It's tough to paint a picture of behavior of these frogs when I can only work with them 2 months out of the year. I think I could get more conclusive behavioral results if I could observe them year-round. 

I mean, for those who keep multiple morphs of pumilio, do you notice a difference in behavior between them (i.e. Bastimentos are more bold whereas Darklands are more apt to hide?)?


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## MonarchzMan (Oct 23, 2006)

Here are some of the videos I managed to upload. Not horrible long, only a minute or so each, but you can get an idea of the habitat these guys are found in. I'm having difficulty with internet at the moment, but once I get it straightened out, I'll upload the last two or three videos for all y'all!

Solarte - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn0qTZYRkK4

Popa South - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUnmE1_ObTI

Popa North - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmtqyLnlRt0

Isla Colon - La Gruta - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-e47WMLs9A

Cayo de Agua - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScyyPV2dBnk

Bastimentos Cemetery - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa5fQjp3pr4

Almirante - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHCJLiFEBEg

Aguacate - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26_ai9ST8LQ

Still to come is Shepherd's Island and my new morph. I'll post them once I get them up!


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## UmbraSprite (Mar 2, 2007)

Awesome!

Putting my video to shame!


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## Dendrophoto (Apr 5, 2008)

just to add a picture to this post.

here is D. pumilio Melci
one of the three or so variations you can see on location.











Dendrophoto


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## DizzyD (Sep 19, 2006)

oh man, I think I found my new love. Those pum's are all gorgeous, and the data is great to know! I bet you're super-stoked!!!! Good luck and hopefully it'll all work out. 8)


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## flyingkip (Jan 9, 2005)

Any updates on that new morph?

Might it be red bisira? http://www.tropical-experience.nl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=78&Itemid=85


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## Dendrophoto (Apr 5, 2008)

the name Pumilio Melci comes from the name of the indian who works with Erwin Strouwen (who organises boat tours around Bocas - great job, really cheap compared to the others and also very interested in dartfrogs). 
Melci's parents own the land and decided it should be named after their son's name ...  

i don't know about the Pumilio "bisira river" but they certainly do look very similar.


Dendrophoto


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## Dendrophoto (Apr 5, 2008)

an other picture to add to this post.
D. pumilio Bocas del Drago










enjoy!


Dendrophoto


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

My own 2 cents.... lugubris can get a touch of the center stripe, but likely not as prevelant as the Minys. 

Very cool about the morphs... would be even better to get contigious informaiton so we don't just have locality names (since populations can stretch to other areas and be named that too!) and know what actually IS a seperate population and what isn't (Darklands/Cauchero debate...).

And then figuring out if pumilio gets split, what frog goes into what species  Tho most of these would be pumilio...


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## Brock (Jun 29, 2007)

I love posts like this!

Thank you for all your work, and great pictures. If you could, I'd love if you could post some pictures of the variation of habitat, or just some surrounding habitat of where you find healthy populations.


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## Dendrophoto (Apr 5, 2008)

an other pumilio picture :wink: 


Dendrobates pumilio "Isla Plantain"










somewhere between Cusapin and Nancy Point!


Dendrophoto


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## Julio (Oct 8, 2007)

great Info, thanks for sharing.


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## MonarchzMan (Oct 23, 2006)

KeroKero said:


> My own 2 cents.... lugubris can get a touch of the center stripe, but likely not as prevelant as the Minys.


I'm fairly certain that it's a Minyobates. The throat doesn't seem to vary too much between the species, and we found many of them and they were all that tiny size. I find it difficult to think that lugubris were that prolific :lol: 



> Very cool about the morphs... would be even better to get contigious informaiton so we don't just have locality names (since populations can stretch to other areas and be named that too!) and know what actually IS a seperate population and what isn't (Darklands/Cauchero debate...).


I'm going to run some DNA assays to see where my morph fits into the complex (it is a new morph according to my prof).



> And then figuring out if pumilio gets split, what frog goes into what species  Tho most of these would be pumilio...


In talking with Mo Donnelly, she doesn't think that they should be split, at least on the current data. I'm kinda thinking the same since there is more to a species, IMO, than simply genetics.

Papers should come out this fall on everything. One on microhabitat. One on boldness. And one on the DNA assay. I've been bugging professors about what stats to run, but haven't been getting replies, so I'm taking a stats class this fall, so I'll just do it myself. So fall is the goal for publication.


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## crb_22601 (Jan 12, 2006)

That Isla Plantain is AMAZING :shock: 

How close to the darkland and Cauchero Population are they?


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## Dendrophoto (Apr 5, 2008)

crb_22601 said:


> How close to the darkland and Cauchero Population are they?


crb_22601, 
this little Island is about 40 miles away from Darkland, if you are a bird and fly straight line :wink:
it is about 0.4 mile long, 0.15 mile wide and around 1 mile away from "mainland"


Dendrophoto


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## crb_22601 (Jan 12, 2006)

Wow I thought they would be somewhat close...

Absolutely Stunning.


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

Wasn't saying the miny was a lugubris (body is different) just noting that they do get the speckles resembling a line down the middle sometimes 

I agree there is more to a species than genetics, but some of these frogs have been suspect on if they are seperate species for a bit, and genetics can be the tool to clear it up.... especially when you don't have the biogeographical information to back up seperate species anyways. Due to personal experiences I'd believe the 3 species would be valid if genetics show clear differences (because to me they show other differences and the genetics would just be backing that up). It will be a few years of sampling and fighting it out... but seeing sylvaticus/histrionicus and tricolor/anthonyi go the way they have, the pumilio thing wouldn't suprise me. Now try and break up the Panama true pumilio into seperate species, then I'd wonder what people are smoking :lol:


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## MonarchzMan (Oct 23, 2006)

I'm not so sure I'd believe the mainland pumilio being different. The only ones I'd really consider separate would be Escudos, but the rest, I'm not so sure.


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

Depends on what you mean by mainland, and I don't think we are thinking of the sepration the same way... Escudo is the obvious odd man out (I was told at NAAC that in a room full of pumilio calling, the keeper could always tell the Escudos because they were so different), and I wouldn't be suprised if there were a couple other localities that went with it... as for the rest of the population, to be completely general the way I understand it is the Nic/CR animals would be another species, and the majority of the Panma pumilio would remain O. pumilio (since the type locality is Bocas del Toro and Chiriqui Volcano, Panama if my german is correct). I'm not sure what the northern pums would be... _D. typographus_ was from Costa Rica (1867), and _D. ignitus_ (1874) was from a region in Nicaragua, so I imagine the first would be resurrected. I imagine the new El Dorados would likely be kept with the CR/Nic animals as it seems to show more characteristics with the BriBri and more upland northern group than the Panama lowland group going by limited information. As for how they are in captivity, at least care wise I find it interesting that it's the panama types that breed like rabbits while the CR/Nic animals tend to have been a bit more problematic...

I wasn't talking about the island localities being seperate from the mainland, even tho that seperation was already attempted in 1953 with D. galindoi (Bastimentos)... but with pumilio type locality being Bocas del Toro I really wonder how that would have worked since the type locality for both species were generally the same... probably why the name isn't used  Seperating the island forms from the mainland would be odd because then under similar reasoning would each island be it's own species too? I didn't think the drying out/flooding of panama that made the islands happened that far ago to make that happen... didn't hold for azureus either. I dunno, panama has gone through some funky geological changes over time, and the crazy array of pumilio and auratus are living proof...


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