''Ranitomeya amazonica'' is a

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 ...

in the genus ''

Ranitomeya ''Ranitomeya'' is a genus of dart poison frogs found in Panama and South America south to Peru and Brazil, possibly into Bolivia. Taxonomy In 2006 Grant et al. revised the systematics of poison dart frogs and placed many species formerly classif ...

''. It was first described by Rainer Schulte in 1999 as ''Dendrobates amazonicus'' when he separated it from '' Dendrobates ventrimaculatus'', primarily on the basis of call characteristics. The validity of the

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

has been debated, but further studies, also including genetic data, support its validity.

Distribution and habitat

This species has only been confirmed to reside in northeastern

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

within the

Amazon Basin The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributary, tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries ...

. It is diurnal and lives in

primary forest An old-growth forest or primary forest is a forest that has developed over a long period of time without Disturbance (ecology), disturbance. Due to this, old-growth forests exhibit unique ecological features. The Food and Agriculture Organizati ...

and older

secondary forest A secondary forest (or second-growth forest) is a forest or woodland area which has regenerated through largely natural processes after human-caused Disturbance (ecology), disturbances, such as Logging, timber harvest or agriculture clearing, or ...

. Most of its habitats are pristine, but it has shown some tolerance to disturbance. It has been observed between 0 and 200 meters above sea level.

Conservation status and threats

It is listed as "

Least Concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

" on the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological ...

based on the assessment from 2023. What threat it faces comes from habitat loss associated with agriculture and cattle cultivation. An assessment of fifteen frogs in French Guiana showed that about 13 percent were infected with the fungus '' Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis'', which causes

chytridiomycosis Chytridiomycosis ( ) is an infectious disease in amphibians, caused by the chytrid fungi '' Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis'' and '' Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans''. Chytridiomycosis has been linked to dramatic population declines or extinc ...

. This frog has been seen on the international pet trade, but because it is also raised in captivity, it is difficult to tell whether any given frog was raised in captivity or captured in the wild. The frog occurs in at least two protected parks, Reserva Nacional Alpahuayo Mishana and Reserva Comunal Tamshiyacu-Tahuayo, and scientists infer it could live in many more.

Description

''Ranitomeya amazonica'' is 16–19 mm long with smooth, black skin. The torso is laterally striped orange or red while the legs and arms feature a mesh of blue, grey or green on black. There is no explicit

sexual dimorphism Sexual dimorphism is the condition where sexes of the same species exhibit different Morphology (biology), morphological characteristics, including characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most dioecy, di ...

in this frog, but females tend to be slightly bigger than males.

References

External links

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New species discovered in Amazon
Yahoo News. {{Taxonbar, from=Q138514 Amphibians described in 1999 Ranitomeya Frogs of Brazil Amphibians of Colombia Amphibians of French Guiana Amphibians of Guyana Frogs of Peru