''Oophaga'' is a genus of poison-dart frogs containing twelve species, many of which were formerly placed in the genus ''

Dendrobates ''Dendrobates'' is a genus of poison dart frogs native to Central and South America. It once contained numerous species, but most originally placed in this genus have been split off into other genera such as ''Adelphobates'', '' Ameerega'', '' A ...

''. The frogs are distributed in Central and South America, from

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...

through the Colombian

El Choco EL, El or el may refer to: Religion * El (deity), a Semitic word for "God" People * EL (rapper) (born 1983), stage name of Elorm Adablah, a Ghanaian rapper and sound engineer * El DeBarge, music artist * El Franco Lee (1949–2016), American po ...

to northern

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...

(at elevations below ). Their habitats vary with some species being arboreal while other being terrestrial, but the common feature is that their

tadpole A tadpole is the larval stage in the biological life cycle of an amphibian. Most tadpoles are fully aquatic, though some species of amphibians have tadpoles that are terrestrial. Tadpoles have some fish-like features that may not be found i ...

s are obligate egg feeders.

Etymology

''Oophaga'', Greek for "egg eater" (''oon'', '), is descriptive of the

tadpoles A tadpole is the larval stage in the biological life cycle of an amphibian. Most tadpoles are fully aquatic, though some species of amphibians have tadpoles that are terrestrial. Tadpoles have some fish-like features that may not be found in ...

' diet.Zimmermann, E. and Zimmermann, H. 1994. ''Reproductive strategies, breeding, and conservation of tropical frogs: dart-poison frogs and Malagasy poison frogs''. In: J.B. Murphy, K. Adler and J.T. Collins (eds), Captive management and conservation of amphibians and reptiles, pp. 255-266. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Ithaca (New York). Contributions to Herpetology, Volume 11.

Reproduction

While presumably all dendrobatids show parental care, this is unusually advanced in ''Oophaga'': the

s feed exclusively on trophic (unfertilized) eggs supplied as food by the mother; the father is not involved. Through the eggs, the mother also passes defensive toxins to the tadpoles: ''

Oophaga pumilio ''Oophaga'' is a genus of poison-dart frogs containing twelve species, many of which were formerly placed in the genus '' Dendrobates''. The frogs are distributed in Central and South America, from Nicaragua through the Colombian El Choco to n ...

'' tadpoles experimentally fed with eggs from alkaloid-free frogs did not contain alkaloids.

Species

There are twelve species in this genus:

Captivity

''Oophaga'' may be kept as pets by experienced amphibian keepers, but they are challenging to breed in captivity as only parents can feed and care for tadpoles.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q134800 Poison dart frogs Amphibians of Central America Amphibians of South America Amphibian genera