Unusual whitish eggs in the poison frog Dendrobates auratus Girard, 1855

Abstract

Poison frogs in the genus Dendrobates (sensu Grant et al. 2006) are known to lay black pigmented eggs. During a field study in May 2010 in central Panama, a captive pair of wild-caught adult Dendrobates auratus laid a clutch of whitish eggs. The eggs developed and metamorphic froglets were similar in size and color to that of age-matched normal-colored tadpoles produced by different parents and reared in exactly the same conditions. The observation of a pale pigmented tadpole in the wild suggests that polymorphism in the degree of melanism is not simply an artifact of laboratory rearing. Our study is the first to report the production of viable whitish eggs by any species in the genus Dendrobates. Whether this coloration arises due to constraint or is a polymorphism that has adaptive significance awaits further study. © Istituto per lo Studio degli Ecosistemi of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Firenze 2012.