Ranitomeya benedicta

The blessed poison frog (Ranitomeya benedicta) is a frog.  It lives in Peru.

Body
The adult frog can be as big as 20.2 mm long from nose to rear end. This frog has a bright red head with a black body, eyes, and eyelids. The rest of the body has a blue pattern over the black color. The further south the frog lives, the more blue color it has on its legs, back, and belly.

Home
This frog lives in rainforests that have never been cut down and rainforests that were cut down and have had a long time to grow back. It lives in forests that are not too high up in the mountains. People have seen this frog between 150 and 405 meters above sea level. People see this frog in dead trees on the ground. This frog is awake during the day and lives on the ground.

Young
The male frog's voice sounds like a buzz. Scientists have never heard the frog call in the wild, but frogs in glass cages call all the time.

The female frog lays 4-6 eggs at a time. After the eggs hatch, the adult frog carries the tadpoles to different pools of water.

Danger
Scientists believe this frog is in some danger of dying out because human beings change the places where it lives, for example to make farms and get wood to build with.  People also catch this frog to sell as a pet. People began to catch this frog not long after scientists wrote the first paper about it. 

At least one of the places this frog lives is a protected park: Cordillera Azul National Park.

First paper

References

Category:Frogs of South America