Strawberry Poison-dart Frog
The strawberry poison-dart frog (Oophaga pumilio) is a tiny, brightly colored frog of the rainforests of Central America. It comes in dozens of color morphs, including the red-with-blue-legs 'blue jeans' frog.
The strawberry poison-dart frog (Oophaga pumilio) is a tiny, brightly colored frog of the rainforests of Central America. It comes in dozens of color morphs, including the red-with-blue-legs "blue jeans" frog.
🧬 Field Guide Specimen: Open Strawberry Poison-dart Frog in the CRV Science Field Guide to log the specimen, see its place among the Tetrapoda lineages in the Cladogram Explorer, and test your recall in the Red List conservation game.
Egg-Feeding Mothers: How Are Tadpoles Raised?
The female lays eggs on the ground and carries each tadpole to a tiny pool of water in a bromeliad or leaf axil. She returns to feed it unfertilized eggs, its only food, for several weeks.
Color Morphs and Mate Choice
On the islands of Bocas del Toro in Panama, populations on neighboring islands differ strikingly in color. Females prefer males of their own color, a pattern that may help drive speciation. See Speciation.
Toxins From the Diet
Like other dart frogs, it gets alkaloid toxins from mites and ants it eats, so the poison depends on diet and location.
Strawberry Poison-dart Frog at a Glance
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Scientific name | Oophaga pumilio |
| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Phylum | Chordata |
| Class | Amphibia |
| Order | Anura |
| Family | Dendrobatidae |
| Field Guide group | Tetrapoda: Amphibia (Frogs, Salamanders & Caecilians) |
| Diagnostic feature (Field Guide) | Vibrant aposematic scarlet body with blue-black limbs ('blue jeans'), skin alkaloids sequestered from dietary mites and ants. |
| IUCN Red List status | Least Concern (LC), assessed 2015 |
| Tadpole feeding | Mother supplies unfertilized eggs |
| Toxins | Alkaloids from diet |