# Strawberry Poison Dart Frog, Oophaga Pumilio



## Sheppie (Dec 4, 2014)

The Strawberry Poison-Dart Frog, Oophaga Pumilio or Dendrobates Pumilio, is a species of small amphibian poison dart frog located in Central America. It’s common throughout its range, which stretches from eastern central Nicaragua through Costa Rica and northwestern Panama. The species is frequently found in humid lowlands and premontane forest, but populations of large size are also found in disturbed areas such as plantations. This frog is perhaps most famous for its widespread varieties of color, making up about 15 to 30 color morphs, most of which are presumed to be true-breeding. Though not the most poisonous of the dendrobatids, it is the most toxic member of its genus.

This frog has a specialized diet consisting of small arthropods, primarily formicine ants and true bugs. The frogs, like most poison dart frogs, are harmless when not fed ants or beetles, enabling pumilio to become a rather popular exotic pet.

It is diurnal and mostly terrestrial, and can quite often be found in leaf litter in both forested and disturbed areas. Though brightly colored and toxic, these frogs are rather small, growing to about 17.5 to 22 millimeters in length. The males are extremely territorial, guarding small territories; the females and the juveniles are far more sociable.

O. pumilio is an external breeder, and other species of the genus Oophaga are notable in the amphibian world for exhibiting a high degree of parental care. The Strawberry Poison Dart Frog has dual parental care. The male individuals defend and water the nests and the females feed the tadpoles their unfertilized eggs. Though both sexes contribute to parental care, the females invest more heavily in terms of energy expenditure, investment of their time, and the loss of potential reproduction. The females provide energetically costly eggs to the tadpoles for six to eight weeks, remain sexually inactive during tadpole rearing, and care for only one clutch of four to six tadpoles at a time. The males, on the other hand, contribute the relatively “cheap” act of watering and protecting the eggs for a rather short period of time, and can care for multiple nests at one time. The extreme maternal investment in their offspring is believed to be the result of high egg mortality. Only 5 to 12 percent of the clutch develops into tadpoles, and so the female’s fitness may be best increased by making sure that those few eggs that form into tadpoles survive.

Unlike many species of frogs, amplexus is absent in O. pumilio, with mating individuals instead exhibiting a distinct vent-to-vent position in which the female lays eggs and the male fertilizes them. After mating, the female with lay, on average, three to five eggs on a leaf or bromeliad axil. The male frog will then ensure the eggs are kept hydrated by transporting water in his cloaca. After about ten days, the eggs will hatch and the female will transport the tadpoles on her back to some water-filled location.

The tadpoles are deposited singly at each location. Once this has been completed, the female will come to each tadpole every few days and deposit several unfertilized eggs.

After about a month, the tadpole will metamorphose into a small froglet, generally remaining near their water source for a few days for protection as they absorb the rest of their tail.


Read more at Strawberry Poison Dart Frog, Oophaga Pumilio - Amphibian Reference Library - redOrbit
Poisonous Costa Rican blue-jeans frogs make attentive parents - Houston Chronicle
Metamorphosis - body, water, process, life, plants, form, energy, primary, change, Forms of metamorphosis


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## OrangeTyrant (May 12, 2011)

Did you just copy and paste this here, or are you RedOrbit, where this post can be found verbatim? Are you just trying to get your post count up? Why does it say the genus of the Strawberry dart frog is either Oophaga or Dendrobates? Those are different things, it can only be one of them - Oophaga. It was formerly classified as Dendrobates, but has since been corrected to Oophaga. I'm just generally confused by this post.


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## oldlady25715 (Nov 17, 2007)

I think a month for tads to morph is incorrect.

There is already a care sheet here:
http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/oophaga/57541-dendrobates-pumilio-advanced-expert.html


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