''Colostethus'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

poison dart frog Poison dart frog (also known as dart-poison frog, poison frog or formerly known as poison arrow frog) is the common name of a group of frogs in the family Dendrobatidae which are native to tropical Central and South America. These species are ...

s native to Central and South America, from Panama south to Colombia, Ecuador, and northern Peru. Their common name is rocket frogs, but this name may refer to frogs in other genera and families, following the taxonomic revision of the genus in 2006.

Taxonomy

Formerly, the genus ''Colostethus'' was found to be "rampantly nonmonophyletic" in the taxonomic revision of

s published in 2006. Before the revision, it had 138 species, but this was reduced to 18 species, after species of the former ''Colostethus'' were distributed among eight genera in two families, that is, in Dendrobatidae and in the newly established family

Aromobatidae The Aromobatidae are a family of frogs native to Central and South America. They are sometimes referred to as cryptic forest frogs or cryptic poison frogs. They are the sister taxon of the Dendrobatidae, the poison dart frogs, but are not as toxi ...

(e..g., ''

Anomaloglossus ''Anomaloglossus'' is a genus of frogs in the family Aromobatidae. The genus is endemic to the Guiana Shield in northern South America. It used to be placed in the family Dendrobatidae (together with other genera in the current Aromobatidae), ...

''). Within Dendrobatidae, many former ''Colostethus'' species were moved to ''

Hyloxalus ''Hyloxalus'' is a genus of poison dart frogs, family Dendrobatidae. The genus is distributed in Central and South America, from Panama south to Peru (along the Pacific coast), along with Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador. They also inhabit the ea ...

'', while three were moved to the new genus ''

Silverstoneia ''Silverstoneia'' is a genus of poison dart frogs (family Dendrobatidae) from southern Central America and northern South America, between southwestern Costa Rica and southwestern Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colom ...

''. Nevertheless, ''Colostethus'' is still considered

paraphyletic In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be pa ...

because some ''Colostethus'' are more closely related to ''

Ameerega ''Ameerega'' is a genus of poison dart frogs in the family Dendrobatidae Poison dart frog (also known as dart-poison frog, poison frog or formerly known as poison arrow frog) is the common name of a group of frogs in the Family (biology), f ...

'' than to other ''Colostethus''.

Description

Dorsal Dorsal (from Latin ''dorsum'' ‘back’) may refer to: * Dorsal (anatomy), an anatomical term of location referring to the back or upper side of an organism or parts of an organism * Dorsal, positioned on top of an aircraft's fuselage * Dorsal co ...

colouration is cryptic, brown. A pale oblique lateral stripe is present (but may be broken or incomplete). Dorsal skin is granular posteriorly. In adult males, third finger is swollen.

Species

There are currently 20 species in this genus:

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q134089 Poison dart frogs Amphibians of Central America Amphibians of South America Amphibian genera Taxa named by Edward Drinker Cope