Phyllobates

Phyllobates
P. terribilis
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Anura
Family: Dendrobatidae
Subfamily: Dendrobatinae
Genus: Phyllobates
Duméril and Bibron, 1841
Species

7, see text

Phyllobates is a genus of poison dart frogs native to Central and South America. The genus contains seven known species, which are distributed from eastern Nicaragua to the Pacific coast of Colombia.

Phyllobates contains the most poisonous species of frog, the golden poison frog (P. terribilis). They are typical of the poison dart frogs, in that all species have bright warning coloration (aposematism), 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 contain (in glands in their skin) is batrachotoxin, alongside a wide variety of other toxic compounds. Some populations of Phyllobates lugubris in Central America are not known to be toxic.