Adelphobates

Adelphobates is a small group of poison dart frogs. They live in the Amazon basin in Peru and Brazil. Scientists think they could live in Bolivia too. Scientists first made it as a sister group to the Dendrobates and Oophaga genera. Not all scientists agree that this should be a group. Some scientists think all these frogs should be in Dendrobates. Scientists moved one species originally placed in this genus as Adelphobates captivus to the genus Excidobates.

Name
Adelphobates is from the Ancient Greek, adelphos (brother or twin) and bates (walker or climber). "Brothers" is for two scientists, Charles W. Myers and John W. Daly, even though they are not brothers.

Bodies and young
All frogs in this group have bright color on their skin. The adult frogs carry the tadpoles to Brazil nut shells on the forest floor. If more than one tadpole is in the same shell, they may eat each other.

 Poison 
Like frogs in Dendrobates, Adelphobates frogs have Pumiliotoxin 251D, which changes to Allopumiliotoxin 267A, which is 5 times more toxic. Even 200 μg/kg of pumiliotoxin or 40 μg/kg of allopumiliotoxin can kill.

Species
There are three species in this group:

Adelphobates castaneoticus Caldwell and Myers, 1990
Adelphobates galactonotus  Steindachner, 1864
Adelphobates quinquevittatus Steindachner, 1864

References

Other websites

Category:Frogs of South America