Dendrobates leucomelas

The bumblebee poison dart frog, yellow banded poison frog, yellow-headed poison frog, or yellow-banded poison arrow frog (Dendrobates leucomelas) is a frog.  It lives in  Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, and Guyana.

Body
The adult frog is about 31 to 38 mm long from nose to rear end.  The skin of the frog's back is black with side-to-side stripes. The stripes are either bright yellow, orange-yellow, or orange in color. There can be marks on the stripes. The belly is black in color. These bright colors tell animals that want to eat the frog that there is poison in the frog's body. The frog makes chemicals on its feet to help it climb and stay still without falling.

Home
This frog is awake during the day. It lives on the ground in rainforests. People have seen it on dead leaves on the ground, on rocks, and on plants. Sometimes people see them in gardens. People have seen this frog between 0 and 500 meters above sea level.

Young
Scientists say this is the only frog that lays eggs at the time of year when it does not rain.

The male frog calls to the female frogs. He buzzes and chirps. He lets the female frog see his bright colors. The female frog hits the ground with her feet. Then she follows him to a good place to lay eggs.  The female frogs compete for males.

The male frog watches the eggs. He moves them around so they all get enough air. When the eggs hatch, the adult frogs carry the tadpoles to water.

The tadpoles will eat almost anything they can catch.  They become frogs after 70 to 90 days.

Young frogs look like adult frogs but their colors are not as bright. They will eat fruit flies, crickets, and other small animals with no bones. Some people say they like to eat caterpillars the most.

Chemicals

This frog makes chemicals in its skin. Scientists say people could use  those chemicals to make medicines.  It make the chemicals by eating ants.

Danger
Scientists say this frog is not in danger of dying out because it lives in a large place and there are many of them. It might be in some danger because people change the places where the frog lives to make farms, build roads, and do other things.

People used to catch this frog to sell as a pet, but it is so easy to raise the tadpoles and frogs in buildings that there are many pets that were not caught in the wild.

Many of the places the frog lives are protected parks.

References

Category:Frogs of South America