Dendrobatinae is the main subfamily of frogs in the family Dendrobatidae, the poison dart frogs of Central and South America, found from Nicaragua to the Amazon basin in Brazil.
Description Dendrobatinae are generally small frogs; Andinobates minutus is as small as in snout–vent length. Many species are brightly colored and all are toxic. Alkaloids in Phyllobates are particularly potent.
All species are presumed to show parental care, often by the male. However, some species show biparental care (Ranitomeya), whereas in Oophaga only females care for the tadpoles, feeding them with eggs, their only source of nutrition. The males are responsible for protecting the eggs from predation and keeping the eggs from drying out by urinating on them.Brust, D. G. (1993). "Maternal Brood Care by Dendrobates pumilio: A Frog that Feeds its Young", Journal of Herpetology. Vol. 27, No. 1. pp. 96–98.
General There are eight or seven AmphibiaWeb is not placing Andinobates in any subfamily. genera in this subfamily: Image Genus Living species Adelphobates Grant, Frost, Caldwell, Gagliardo, Haddad, Kok, Means, Noonan, Schargel, and Wheeler, 2006 Adelphobates castaneoticus (Caldwell and Myers, 1990) Adelphobates galactonotus (Steindachner, 1864) Adelphobates quinquevittatus (Steindachner, 1864) Andinobates Twomey, Brown, Amézquita, and Mejía-Vargas, 2011 Andinobates abditus (Myers and Daly, 1976) Andinobates altobueyensis (Silverstone, 1975) Andinobates bombetes (Myers and Daly, 1980) Andinobates cassidyhornae (Amézquita et al., 2013) Andinobates claudiae (Jungfer, Lötters, and Jörgens, 2000) Andinobates daleswansoni (Rueda-Almonacid, Rada, Sánchez-Pacheco, Velásquez-Álvarez, and Quevedo-Gil, 2006) Andinobates dorisswansonae (Rueda-Almonacid, Rada, Sánchez-Pacheco, Velásquez-Álvarez, and Quevedo-Gil, 2006) Andinobates fulguritus (Silverstone, 1975) Andinobates geminisae (Batista et al., 2014) Andinobates minutus (Shreve, 1935) Andinobates opisthomelas (Boulenger, 1899) Andinobates tolimensis (Bernal-Bautista, Luna-Mora, Gallego, and Quevedo-Gil, 2007) Andinobates viridis (Myers and Daly, 1976) Andinobates virolinensis (Ruiz-Carranza and Ramírez-Pinilla, 1992) Dendrobates Wagler, 1830 Dendrobates auratus (Girard, 1855) – Green and black poison dart frog Dendrobates leucomelas (Steindachner, 1864) – Yellow-banded poison dart frog Dendrobates nubeculosus Jungfer and Böhme 2004 - Rockstone poison dart frog Dendrobates tinctorius (Schneider, 1799) – Dyeing dart frog Dendrobates truncatus (Cope, 1861) – Yellow-striped poison frog Excidobates Twomey and Brown, 2008 Excidobates captivus (Myers, 1982) - Santiago poison frog, Peru and Ecuador Excidobates condor Almendáriz, Ron, and Brito M., 2012 - Ecuador Excidobates mysteriosus (Myers, 1982) - Marañón poison frog, Peru Minyobates Myers, 1987 Minyobates steyermarki - demonic poison frog, demonic poison-arrow frog Oophaga Bauer, 1994 Oophaga arborea (Myers, Daly, and Martínez, 1984) — Polkadot poison frog Oophaga granulifera (Taylor, 1958) — Granular poison frog Oophaga histrionica (Berthold, 1845) — Harlequin poison frog Oophaga lehmanni (Myers and Daly, 1976) — Lehmann's poison frog Oophaga occultator (Myers and Daly, 1976) — La Brea poison frog Oophaga pumilio (Schmidt, 1857) — Strawberry poison-dart frog Oophaga speciosa (Schmidt, 1857) — Splendid poison frog Oophaga sylvatica (Funkhouser, 1956) — Diablito poison frog Oophaga vicentei (Jungfer, Weygoldt, and Juraske, 1996) — Vicente's poison frog Phyllobates Duméril and Bibron, 1841 P. lugubris species group Phyllobates lugubris (Schmidt, 1857) Phyllobates vittatus (Cope, 1893) P. bicolor species group Phyllobates bicolor (Duméril and Bibron, 1841) Phyllobates aurotaenia (Boulenger, 1913) Phyllobates sp. aff. aurotaenia Phyllobates terribilis (Myers, Daly, and Malkin, 1978) Ranitomeya Bauer, 1986 Ranitomeya aetherea Koch, Mônico, Dayrell, Ferreira, Dantas, Moravec, and Lima, 2025 Ranitomeya amazonica (Schulte, 1999) Ranitomeya aquamarina Mônico, Koch, Dayrell, Moravec and Lima, 2025 Ranitomeya benedicta Brown, Twomey, Pepper, and Sanchez-Rodriguez, 2008 Ranitomeya cyanovittata Pérez-Peña, Chávez, Twomey, and Brown, 2010 Ranitomeya defleri Twomey and Brown, 2009 Ranitomeya fantastica (Boulenger, 1884) Ranitomeya flavovittata (Schulte, 1999) Ranitomeya imitator (Schulte, 1986) Ranitomeya reticulata (Boulenger, 1884) Ranitomeya sirensis (Aichinger, 1991) Ranitomeya summersi Brown, Twomey, Pepper, and Sanchez-Rodriguez, 2008 Ranitomeya toraro Brown, Caldwell, Twomey, Melo-Sampaio, and Souza, 2011 Ranitomeya uakarii (Brown, Schulte, and Summers, 2006) Ranitomeya vanzolinii (Myers, 1982) Ranitomeya variabilis (Zimmermann and Zimmermann, 1988) Ranitomeya ventrimaculata (Shreve, 1935) Ranitomeya yavaricola Pérez-Peña, Chávez, Twomey, and Brown, 2010
The most specious genera are Ranitomeya (18 species) and Andinobates (16 species). Dendrobates used to be much larger but currently contains only five species, having had most of its species split off into genera erected later.
References