Phyllobates

Taxobox
name = "Phyllobates"

---

image_width = 250px
image_caption = The Golden Poison Frog ("Phyllobates terribilis")
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Amphibia
ordo = Anura
familia = Dendrobatidae
genus = "Phyllobates"
genus_authority = Duméril and Bibron, 1841
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision = "see text"

"Phyllobates" is a genus of poison dart frogs native to South America, from Nicaragua to Colombia. "Phyllobates" contains the most poisonous species of frog, the Golden Poison Frog ("Phyllobates terribilis"). They are typical of the poison dart frogs, in that all species are colourful, and have varying degrees of toxicity. Only species of "Phyllobates" are used by natives of South American tribes as sources of poison for their hunting darts. The most toxic of the many poisonous alkaloids these frogs emit from their skins is Batrachotoxin, but there are a wide number of other toxic compounds which are secreted by these frogs.

Taxonomy

"Phyllobates" used to contain many of the species which are now within the "Dendrobates" genus. However, it now just contains those within the "Phyllobates terribilis" species goup. These are:
*"Phyllobates aurotaenia" (Boulenger, 1913)
*"Phyllobates bicolor" (Duméril and Bibron, 1841)
*"Phyllobates lugubris" (Schmidt, 1857)
*"Phyllobates terribilis" (Myers, Daly, and Malkin, 1978)
*"Phyllobates vittatus" (Cope, 1893)

ee also

*Allopumiliotoxin 267A
*Batrachotoxin
*Pumiliotoxin 251D

References

*cite web| title=Amphibian Species of the World - Phyllobates Duméril and Bibron, 1841| url=http://research.amnh.org/herpetology/amphibia/references.php?id=3438| accessdate=2006-07-21
*cite book|last=Cogger|first=H.G.|coauthors=R.G. Zweifel, and D. Kirschner| year=2004| title=Encyclopedia of Reptiles & Amphibians Second Edition| publisher=Fog City Press| id=ISBN 1-877019-69-0