Phyllobates is a genus of poison dart frog

Poison dart frog

Poison dart frog is the common name of a group of frogs in the family Dendrobatidae which are native to Central and South America. These species are diurnal and often have brightly-colored bodies...

s native to South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

, from Nicaragua

Nicaragua

Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...

 to Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

. Phyllobates contains the most poisonous species of frog, the Golden Poison Frog

Golden Poison Frog

Phyllobates terribilis, the Golden Poison Frog or the Golden Dart Frog, is a poison dart frog endemic to the Pacific coast of Colombia. The optimal habitat of P. terribilis is the rainforest with high rain rates , altitude between 100–200 m, temperature of at least 26 °C, and relative humidity...

 (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 alkaloid

Alkaloid

Alkaloids are a group of naturally occurring chemical compounds that contain mostly basic nitrogen atoms. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Also some synthetic compounds of similar structure are attributed to alkaloids...

s these frogs emit from their skins is batrachotoxin

Batrachotoxin

Batrachotoxins are extremely potent cardiotoxic and neurotoxic steroidal alkaloids found in certain species of frogs , melyrid beetles, and birds...

, but there are a wide number of other toxic compounds which are secreted by these frogs.

Taxonomy

Phyllobates (Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

 for "leaf climber") used to contain many of the species which are now within the Ranitomeya

Ranitomeya

Ranitomeya is a genus of poison dart frogs. It contains many species formerly classified in the genera Dendrobates and Phyllobates. Ranitomeya frogs can be distinguished from those in the former genera in that they are generally smaller, have more than two colors, and seem to glitter if viewed from...

 genus. However, it now just contains those six members within the Phyllobates terribilis species goup. These are:

P. lugubris species group

• Phyllobates aurotaenia
  Phyllobates aurotaenia
  The Kokoe Poison Dart Frog is the smallest of the three most-toxic members of the genus Phyllobates. While it is small, it is just as toxic as Phyllobates bicolor when encountered in the wild. This is one of the more audible of the Poison dart frogs and has a call often described as beautiful and...
  
   (Boulenger
  George Albert Boulenger
  George Albert Boulenger FRS was a Belgian-British zoologist who identified over 2000 new animal species, chiefly fish, reptiles and amphibians.-Life:...
  
  , 1913)
• Phyllobates lugubris (Schmidt, 1857)
• Phyllobates vittatus (Cope
  Edward Drinker Cope
  Edward Drinker Cope was an American paleontologist and comparative anatomist, as well as a noted herpetologist and ichthyologist. Born to a wealthy Quaker family, Cope distinguished himself as a child prodigy interested in science; he published his first scientific paper at the age of nineteen...
  
  , 1893)

P. bicolor species group

• Phyllobates bicolor (Duméril
  André Marie Constant Duméril
  André Marie Constant Duméril was a French zoologist. He was professor of anatomy at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle from 1801 to 1812, when he became professor of herpetology and ichthyology...
  
   and Bibron, 1841)
• Phyllobates sp. aff. aurotaenia
  Phyllobates sp. aff. aurotaenia
  Phyllobates sp. aff. aurotaenia is a temporary name given to a species of poison dart frog, formerly known as the "red" form of Phyllobates aurotaenia. It is morphologically similar to P. aurotaenia, but genetically it is more closely related to P. terribilis and bicolor. It can be distinguished...
  
   (Amezquita, 2011)
• Phyllobates terribilis (Myers, Daly, and Malkin, 1978)

All these different species within the genus exhibit a diversity in color. Examples being, P. terribilis having color morphs of "Mint", "Yellow", and "Orange". P. vittatus is another example. This species is always black as a ground color, but can show yellow stripes, orange stripes, red stripes,(stripes of all colors can be seen in 2 forms, narrow and wide banded) turquoise legs, green legs, blue legs,etc. The Bicolor Dart frog(Phyllobates bicolor) can range from yellow to orange, from black legs to green legs, to almost a uniform color of any of the aforementioned color morphs. P. aurotaenia are yellow banded or orange. They are always smaller than P. vittatus, and beyond locality, this is the best way to differenciate between the 2 in the field or in the hobby.