Blue poison dart frog
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| Blue poison dart frog | |
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Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Amphibia |
| Order: | Anura |
| Family: | Dendrobatidae |
| Genus: | Dendrobates |
| Species: | |
| Subspecies: | D. t. "azureus"
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| Trinomial name | |
| Dendrobates tinctorius "azureus" (Hoogmoed, 1969)
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The blue poison dart frog or blue poison arrow frog (Dendrobates tinctorius "azureus") is a poison dart frog found in the "forest islands" surrounded by the Sipaliwini Savanna in southern Suriname. Its indigenous Tiriyo name is okopipi. The name "azureus" comes from its azure blue color. While first described as a valid species and usually recognized as such in the past, recent authorities generally treat it as a morph of D. tinctorius, although a few treat it as a subspecies of D. tinctorius or continue to treat it as its own species.[1][2][3][4] To what extent it differs from the blue D. tinctorius in southern Guyana, adjacent Pará (Brazil) and possibly far southwestern Suriname, is also a matter of dispute, and many herpetologists, as well as many people keeping poison dart frogs in captivity, have not distinguished these, with all commonly being identified as "azureus".[3]
Description
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The blue poison dart frog is a medium-sized poison dart frog that weighs about 8 g (0.28 oz) and grows to 3.0–4.5 cm (1.2–1.8 in) in snout–vent length. Females are larger and on average about half a centimetre longer than males, but males have larger toes. Its bright blue skin, usually darker around its limbs and stomach, serves as a warning to predators. The glands of poisonous alkaloids located in the skin serve as a defence mechanism to potential predators. The black spots are unique to each frog, enabling individuals to be identified. In addition to differing in color, blue poison dart frogs also tend to have a distinctive hunch-backed posture and a relatively smaller, more oval (less round) tympanum than in other variants of dyeing poison dart frog.[2] Each foot has four toes, which each have a flattened tip with a suction cup pad used for gripping. The tips of the toes in females are round, while males have heart-shaped tips.
Their tadpoles have a long tail, about 6 mm, with a total length of around 10 mm. They lack legs and have gills instead of lungs.
Behavior
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The blue poison dart frog is a terrestrial amphibian, and so generally remains close to a source of water. They spend most of their active hours hunting for insect prey, hopping in short leaps. They are very territorial and aggressive, towards both members of their own species, and others. This is typical of poison dart frog species. They employ a territorial threat display involving a number of techniques, including calls, chasing, and wrestling. [5]
Poison
[edit]The blue poison dart frog primarily employs pumiliotoxins (PTXs) to dissuade predation.[6] PTXs are potent neurotoxins that disrupt neural signalling by binding to and forcing open ion channels, functionally disabling signalling potential.[7] They are not as potent as the batrachotoxins employed by other species of poison dart frog (such as the golden poison dart frog), but are still sufficiently poisonous to discourage predation. There is a species of snake, the Northern redbelly, or fire-bellied snake, that has developed a resistance to these compounds.
Like all similar species, the blue poison date frog does not produce the poison that it excretes onto its skin. Instead, they collect the poisons they use from the insects they prey on, in what is known as "sequestration".[8] When bred in captivity, they will not develop poison, unless fed a diet including insects with the toxic alkaloid compounds they use. In a similar vein, wild-caught poison dart frogs that are kept in captivity will become less poisonous over time.[5]
Poison dart frogs can utilise anywhere from dozens to hundreds of compounds in their poison, most of which have yet to be catalogued or attributed to a dietary source.[9] While they cannot produce toxic compounds, some species can alter the poisons they ingest to increase their toxicity. As a morph of the dyeing poison dart frog, blue poison dart frogs have this ability, being able to metabolise pumiliotoxin into allopumiliotoxin, a compound five times as potent.[6]
Although poison dart frogs are so named for their use as a poison additive to darts and arrows by indigenous peoples, only certain species, namely from the genus Phyllobates, were ever actually used to this purpose.[5]
Reproduction
[edit]The blue poison dart frog breeds seasonally, usually during February or March when the weather is rainy. To find mates, the males sit on a rock and produce quiet calls, which the females follow to track down the males. The females then physically fight over a male. The male takes the female to a quiet place by the water, which becomes the site of the egg-laying. Fertilization occurs externally; once the eggs are laid, the male covers them in his sperm.
Between five and ten offspring are produced at each mating. Eggs are laid in the male's territory, which he defends. The male takes care of the eggs, sometimes joined by the female. The eggs hatch after 14 to 18 days, and after 10 to 12 weeks the tadpoles are fully mature. Both sexes reach sexual maturity at two years of age. The expected lifespan of D. tinctorius "azureus" is between 4 and 6 years in the wild and about 10 years in captivity.
Feeding
[edit]The blue poison dart frog feeds on fire ants and insects which may have poisonous chemical which makes the blue poison dart frog poisonous. Other than that it also feeds on beetles, flies, mites, spiders, termites, maggots, and caterpillars. The Blue Poison Arrow Frog's toxicity is diet-dependent, with the frogs acquiring toxic batrachotoxins from consuming ants and other small invertebrates in their natural habitat. Frogs raised in captivity, without access to these ants, do not produce the same toxins.[10]
Captive care
[edit]In captivity, like most captive dart frogs, they eat a staple diet of fruit flies, pinhead crickets, rice flour beetle larvae, isopods, and springtails.
References
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- ^ a b IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group (2023). "Dendrobates tinctorius". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2023: e.T55204A61395760. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2023-1.RLTS.T55204A61395760.en.
- ^ a b Wollenberg, Katharina C.; Veith, Michael; Noonan, Brice P.; Lötters, Stefan (2006). Quattro, J. M (ed.). "Polymorphism Versus Species Richness—systematics of Large Dendrobates from the Eastern Guiana Shield (Amphibia: Dendrobatidae)". Copeia. 6 (4): 623. doi:10.1643/0045-8511(2006)6[623:PVSROL]2.0.CO;2. S2CID 51861356.
- ^ a b d'Orgeix, C.A.; Hardy, D.; Witiak, S.M.; Robinson, L.R.; Jairam, R. (2019). "The Blue Dyeing Poison-Dart Frog, Dendrobates tinctorius (Dendrobates azureus, Hoogmoed 1969): extant in Suriname based on a rapid survey". Amphibian & Reptile Conservation. 13 (2): 259–264.
- ^ Hoogmoed, M.S. (2019). "Unpublished population data of Dendrobates azureus Hoogmoed 1969 obtained in 1968 and 1970, and its historical and current taxonomic status". Amphibian & Reptile Conservation. 13 (2): 95–101.
- ^ a b c "Dendrobates tinctorius - Frogs & Co". 2 April 2021. Retrieved 15 April 2025.
- ^ a b Riley, Darren Lyall (October 2007). Synthesis of amphibian indolizidine alkaloids and related compounds from enaminone precursors (PDF) (Doctor of Philosophy thesis). University of the Witwatersrand. p. 8. Retrieved 15 August 2024.
- ^ Daly, JW; Garraffo, HM; Spande, TF; et al. (September 2003). "Evidence for an enantioselective pumiliotoxin 7-hydroxylase in dendrobatid poison frogs of the genus Dendrobates". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 100 (19): 11092–7. Bibcode:2003PNAS..10011092D. doi:10.1073/pnas.1834430100. PMC 196932. PMID 12960405.
- ^ Alvarez-Buylla, Aurora; Payne, Cheyenne Y.; Vidoudez, Charles; Trauger, Sunia A.; O'Connell, Lauren A. (2022). "Molecular physiology of pumiliotoxin sequestration in a poison frog". PLOS ONE. 17 (3): e0264540. Bibcode:2022PLoSO..1764540A. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0264540. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 8916643. PMID 35275922.
- ^ Real Science (25 November 2023). The Insane Biology of: The Poison Dart Frog. Retrieved 15 April 2025 – via YouTube.
- ^ Darst et al. 2005
External links
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Media related to Dendrobates azureus at Wikimedia Commons