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Strawberry Poision-dart Frog (Blue morph)
Oophaga pumilio
9.26187, -82.1053
Field Notes
Description:
A small (2.5cm or 1" sv) poison frog. Known for its many colour variations. This one is the 'Blue Morph'. It is entirely blue/blue-indigo with just a hint of red at its elbows and knees.
Habitat:
Living in leaf litter in semi cleared forest on one of the islands that make up an area known as the Darklands within the Bocas Del Toro Province in western Panama. I has been unseasonably dry and these guys were pretty hard to find.
Notes:
The colour variations for this species are remarkable. It is thought to be due to geographic isolation of different populations and in this area many of the islands have a different colour morph. Some more marked than others.
The poison secreted in the frogs skin is an alkaloid derived from Pumiliotoxin. The frogs diet consists largely of mites (Orabatida) and ants (formicine ants from genus Brachymyrmex) that contain these toxins. The more they eat of these, the more toxic they become.
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