Oophaga

Not to be confused with oophagy.

Oophaga is a genus of poison-dart frogs containing twelve species, many of which were formerly placed in the genus Dendrobates.^[1] The frogs are distributed in Central and South America, from Nicaragua south through the El Chocó to northern Ecuador (at elevations below 1,200 m (3,900 ft)).^[1][2] Their habitats vary with some species being arboreal while other being terrestrial,^[3] but the common feature is that their tadpoles are obligate egg feeders.^[3][1][4][5] Most species in this genus are seriously threatened and O. speciosa is already extinct.^[6]

Oophaga
Oophaga pumilio
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Amphibia
Order:	Anura
Family:	Dendrobatidae
Subfamily:	Dendrobatinae
Genus:	Oophaga Bauer, 1994
Type species
Dendrobates pumilio Schmidt, 1857
Diversity
12 species (see text)

Etymology

Oophaga, Greek for "egg eater" (oon, phagos),^[7][8] is descriptive of the tadpoles' diet.^[9][10]

Reproduction

While presumably all dendrobatids show parental care, this is unusually advanced in Oophaga: the tadpoles feed exclusively on trophic (unfertilized) eggs supplied as food by the mother; the father is not involved.^[1][4] Through the eggs, the mother also passes defensive toxins to the tadpoles: Oophaga pumilio tadpoles experimentally fed with eggs from alkaloid-free frogs did not contain alkaloids.^[11]

Species

There are twelve species in this genus:^[2]

Image	Scientific name	Common name	Distribution
	Oophaga anchicayensis (Posso-Terranova and Andrés, 2018)		Chocó region of northwestern Colombia
	Oophaga andresi (Posso-Terranova and Andrés, 2018)	Cocorro	Columbia
	Oophaga arborea (Myers, Daly, and Martínez, 1984)	Polkadot poison frog	Panama
	Oophaga granulifera (Taylor, 1958)	Granular poison frog	Costa Rica and Panama
	Oophaga histrionica (Berthold, 1845)	Harlequin poison frog	El Chocó region of western Colombia
	Oophaga lehmanni (Myers and Daly, 1976)	Lehmann's poison frog	western Colombia
	Oophaga occultator (Myers and Daly, 1976)	La Brea poison frog	Cordillera Occidental in the Cauca Department of Colombia
	Oophaga pumilio (Schmidt, 1857)	Strawberry poison-dart frog	eastern central Nicaragua through Costa Rica and northwestern Panama
	Oophaga solanensis (Posso-Terranova and Andrés, 2018)	Koe-koe	Northwestern region of Colombia, on the western banks of the Atrato and san Juan rivers
	Oophaga speciosa (Schmidt, 1857)	Splendid poison frog	Cordillera de Talamanca, western Panama (extinct)
	Oophaga sylvatica (Funkhouser, 1956)	Diablito poison frog	southwestern Colombia and northwestern Ecuador.
	Oophaga vicentei (Jungfer, Weygoldt, and Juraske, 1996)	Vicente's poison frog	Veraguas, Bocas del Toro, Colón and Coclé Provinces of central Panama

Captivity

Oophaga may be kept as pets by experienced amphibian keepers, but they are challenging to breed in captivity as only parents can feed and care for tadpoles.^[3]

References

1. Grant, T.; Frost, D. R.; Caldwell, J. P.; Gagliardo, R.; Haddad, C. F. B.; Kok, P. J. R.; Means, D. B.; Noonan, B. P.; Schargel, W. E. & Wheeler, W. C. (2006). "Phylogenetic systematics of dart-poison frogs and their relatives (Amphibia: Athesphatanura: Dendrobatidae)" (PDF). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 299. American Museum of Natural History: 1–262. doi:10.1206/0003-0090(2006)299[1:PSODFA]2.0.CO;2. S2CID 82263880.
2. Frost, Darrel R. (2022). "Oophaga Bauer, 1994". Amphibian Species of the World: An Online Reference. Version 6.1. American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
3. "Oophaga — the obligate egg feeders". dendroWorks. 2011. Archived from the original on 11 August 2016. Retrieved 12 September 2014.
4. Vitt, Laurie J.; Caldwell, Janalee P. (2014). Herpetology: An Introductory Biology of Amphibians and Reptiles (4th ed.). Academic Press. p. 490.
5. "Poison Dart Frog Genus Oophaga". www.dartfrog.pet. Retrieved 2022-04-21.
6. "Oophaga". IUCN Red List. IUCN. Retrieved 3 December 2023.
7. "-phagous | Origin and meaning of suffix -phagous by Online Etymology Dictionary".
8. "Egg | Origin and meaning of egg by Online Etymology Dictionary".
9. Heselhaus, R. 1992. Poison-arrow frogs: their natural history and care in captivity. Blandford, London.
10. Zimmermann, E. and Zimmermann, H. 1994. Reproductive strategies, breeding, and conservation of tropical frogs: dart-poison frogs and Malagasy poison frogs. In: J.B. Murphy, K. Adler and J.T. Collins (eds), Captive management and conservation of amphibians and reptiles, pp. 255-266. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Ithaca (New York). Contributions to Herpetology, Volume 11.
11. Stynoski, J. L.; Torres-Mendoza, Y.; Sasa-Marin, M.; Saporito, R. A. (2014). "Evidence of maternal provisioning of alkaloid-based chemical defenses in the strawberry poison frog Oophaga pumilio". Ecology. 95 (3): 587–593. doi:10.1890/13-0927.1. hdl:10669/76946. PMID 24804437.