''Dendrobates'' is a genus of
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. It once contained numerous species, but most originally placed in this genus have been split off into other genera such as ''
Adelphobates'', ''
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 ...
'', ''
Andinobates
''Andinobates'' is a genus of poison dart frogs from Ecuador, Colombia and Panama. It contains species formerly classified in the genus ''Dendrobates'' and in 2006 transferred to the genus ''Ranitomeya''. In 2011 Twomey, Brown, and their colleag ...
'', ''
Epipedobates'', ''
Excidobates
''Excidobates'' is a genus of poison dart frogs endemic to the Marañón River drainage in Peru and Ecuador, South America. At one time members of this genus were classified as ''Dendrobates
''Dendrobates'' is a genus of poison dart frogs nat ...
'', ''
Oophaga'', ''
Phyllobates'' and ''
Ranitomeya'' (essentially all the brightly marked poison dart frogs; i.e. excluding the duller genera in the family like ''
Colostethus'' and ''
Hyloxalus''), leaving only five large to medium-sized species in the genus ''Dendrobates''. All the other genera used to be grouped in with ''Dendrobates'' because it was previously thought that all brightly colored poison dart frogs came from the same ancestor but this has since been proven to be incorrect. ''Dendrobates'' and ''Phyllobates'' evolved