animal-kingdom

amphibia

This frog’s skin becomes poisonous to the touch (via skin secretion) due to its diet of a Oribatida mites and Formicine ants.

While most commonly having a bright red back and belly with small black spots, there are variantions of all kinds depending on location. Females have shown to prefer males of similar brightness and color to their own coloring.

Sources:

• Saporito, R., Donnelly, M., Norton, R., Garrafo H., Spande T. Daly, J. ‘Oribatid mites as a major dietary source for alkaloids in poison frogs
• Saporito. R., Garrafo H., Donnelly M., Edwards A. Longino J., Daly J. ‘Formicine ants: An arthropod source for the pumiliotoxin alkaloids of dendrobatid poison frogs’
• Yang, Y., Richards-Zawacki, C. L., Devar, A. and Dugas, M. B. (2016). ”Poison frog color morphs express assortative mate preferences in allopatry but not sympatry.” Evolution, 70(12), 2778–2788.
• AmphibiaWeb

Image credit: CalPhotos - Tobias Eisenberg

Written by Jordan Polaniec, who loves software.  You can follow him on Twitter