What makes a poison arrow frog a poison arrow frog?
Of course every brightly coloured frog is not a poison arrow frog. First off, the frogs are referred to as poison arrow frogs, poison dart frogs, dart poison frogs, and other variations upon this general theme. It is a matter of semantics as to which is correct, however identifying between the different genre in this family is where I wouldn’t want to make a mistake in my taxanomic identification. The true poison arrow frogs are found in the Dendrobatid family that traditionally included the genera Dendrobates, Epipedobates, Minyobates and Phyllobates. The taxonomical debate for these little dynamos has long been a matter of great discussion yet recent work based upon mitochondrial DNA has gone a long way towards resolving the issues, but much still remains to be done. What is certain is that, proclamations on pet store list to the contrary, the species of Atelopus (Harlequin toads), Mantellas and others are not poison arrow frogs. The myriad of colors that can be found in the poison a
