DOI: 10.5061/dryad.m37pvmdd6
title: Invertebrate photographs and taxonomic information from: Nuance in the narrative of a brown poison frog: Environmental alkaloids and specialized foraging in a presumed toxin-free and diet-generalized species

description: In poison frogs (Dendrobatidae), conspicuous colors have evolved
 repeatedly in tandem with high numbers and quantities of skin toxins
 (alkaloids). Here, we focus on an inconspicuously-colored
 species—Silverstoneia flotator—which has long been deemed toxin-free and
 thought to forage opportunistically on mites and ants. Both assumptions
 have received some empirical support, but there is also evidence that
 predators avoid S. flotator. In a Panamanian S. flotator population, we
 sampled invertebrates in frog diets and the surrounding environment (using
 Berlese and pitfall traps) and screened for skin, dietary, and
 environmental alkaloids using untargeted metabolomics. We found that while
 the frogs are opportunistic consumers of mites and ants, they display
 preferences at finer taxonomic scales (for symphypleonan springtails and
 Pheidole ants). We also annotated 64 skin compounds as alkaloids, 38 of
 which were present in the environment. One alkaloid present in the skin
 and environment is likely the highly potent epibatidine. While the average
 biosynthetic (class and superclass) diversity of alkaloids in a dorsal
 skin sample is higher than that of a ventral skin and environmental—but
 not dietary—sample, environmental samples diverge more in their alkaloid
 biosynthetic diversities than do dietary or skin samples. The frogs
 consume a consistent set of alkaloids, forage in a variable chemical
 space, and possess diverse dorsal skin alkaloids. They might use
 finer-scale diet specialization to modulate the types, quantities, and
 numbers of alkaloids they ingest. We encourage further examination of
 inconspicuously-colored taxa to better understand the ecological
 importance of diet-acquired toxins and specialized diets in cryptic
 organisms.
description: All stomach and environmental invertebrates were photographed
 under a Nikon light stereomicroscope and rendered as TIF files. 
description: # Invertebrate photographs and taxonomic information from: Nuance in the
 narrative of a brown poison frog: Environmental alkaloids and specialized
 foraging in a presumed toxin-free and diet-generalized species
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.m37pvmdd6](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.m37pvmdd6) ## Description of the data and file structure Invertebrate_Summary_Tables.zip Included in this compressed folder are word documents with tables that have the consensus identifications (from the xlsx files, see descriptions below), but these tables are further curated and thus more easily digestible. Invertebrate_Identifications_Metabolomic_Set.zip Included in this compressed folder are xlsx documents containing all identifications of the invertebrates used in metabolomic analyses for this study, as well as consensus identifications. Importantly, strikethroughs represent identifications that were ruled out (deemed incorrect) after third-party arbitration, and blank cells means that the source (indicated by the column) has not yet provided an identification for the invertebrate sample (indicated by the row). Invertebrate_Identifications_Taxonomy_Set.zip Included in this compressed folder are xlsx documents containing all identifications of the invertebrates used in taxonomic analyses (i.e., that were identified morphologically) for this study, as well as consensus identifications. Importantly, strikethroughs represent identifications that were ruled out (deemed incorrect) after third-party arbitration, and blank cells means that the source (indicated by the column) has not yet provided an identification for the invertebrate sample (indicated by the row). Berlese_Invertebrate_Photographs_Taxonomy_Set.zip Included here are all Berlese invertebrates used in taxonomic analyses, from the*Silverstoneia flotator* population near Pipeline Rd in Panama (August 2022) were photographed under a Nikon light stereomicroscope. Photos in this compressed folder are formatted as TIF files. Berlese_Invertebrate_Photographs_Metabolomic_Set.zip Included here are all Berlese invertebrates used in metabolomic analyses, from the*Silverstoneia flotator* population near Pipeline Rd in Panama (August 2022) were photographed under a Nikon light stereomicroscope. Photos in this compressed folder are formatted as TIF files. Pitfall_Invertebrate_Photographs_Taxonomy_Set.zip Included here are all pitfall invertebrates used in taxonomic analyses, from the*Silverstoneia flotator* population near Pipeline Rd in Panama (August 2022) were photographed under a Nikon light stereomicroscope. Photos in this compressed folder are formatted as TIF files. Pitfall_Invertebrate_Photographs_Metabolomic_Set.zip Included here are all pitfall invertebrates used in metabolomic analyses, from the*Silverstoneia flotator* population near Pipeline Rd in Panama (August 2022) were photographed under a Nikon light stereomicroscope. Photos in this compressed folder are formatted as TIF files. Stomach_Invertebrate_Photographs.zip Included here are all dietary invertebrates, which wre used in metabolomic analyses, from the*Silverstoneia flotator* population near Pipeline Rd in Panama (August 2022) were photographed under a Nikon light stereomicroscope. Photos in this compressed folder are formatted as TIF files. ## Code/software No special software is needed to view data. ## Access information Other publicly accessible locations of the data: * NA Data was derived from the following sources: * Light microscopy was performed at the Center for Biomedical Research Support Microscopy and Flow Cytometry Facility at UT Austin (RRID:SCR_021756).