THE ANIMAL FILES

Harlequin poison frog

No verified Chinese common name in our sources; the English name is retained.

Oophaga histrionica

A tiny pool can become a nursery supplied with unfertilised eggs.

The harlequin poison frog, Oophaga histrionica, lives in western Colombia’s Chocó rainforest region. Its family life links leaf-litter eggs to tadpoles developing in tiny plant-held pools. The mother supplies food eggs rather than leaving larvae to find an ordinary pond diet.[1]

Follow the evidence ↓
Harlequin poison frog
Image: desertnaturalist · Commons · CC BY 4.0
Region
Chocó, western Colombia[1]
Larval nursery
Tiny water reservoirs, often in bromeliads[1]
Larval food
Unfertilised eggs supplied by the mother[1]

Two settings for early life

Adults occupy the rainforest floor among leaf litter and fallen wood. Eggs are laid in leaf litter after courtship involving calls and contact. After hatching, a parent carries tadpoles to small water reservoirs. Egg-laying site and swimming nursery are therefore separate places connected by parental transport.[1]

Food delivered as eggs

The mother revisits larvae and deposits unfertilised eggs for them to eat. Tadpoles depend on this food in the described life history, rather than merely accepting an optional snack. Small isolated pools therefore function within a continuing parental-care system, not as self-sufficient miniature lakes.[1]

Names need a species boundary

Adults take ants and mites on the forest floor. Brown backgrounds and bright dorsal markings vary. Some frogs formerly grouped under this species were separated into other species in 2018, so old photographs and broad common-name claims require attention to identity.[1]

A COMMON MIX-UP

Are the mother’s food eggs fertilised siblings for the tadpole to hatch beside?

No. The supplied food eggs are unfertilised.[1]

TRY A LITTLE REASONING

Why would an apparently full pool still fail to provide everything a tadpole needs?

Reveal the explanation

Water is habitat, while the mother’s eggs supply essential food; the two resources are different.[1]

Sources & editorial notes

Adapted and translated from the cited Wikipedia revisions, with source-linked reasoning. Image credit and licence are listed separately above.

Adapted and translated from Wikipedia contributors; exact revisions are linked below. CC BY-SA 4.0

  1. Wikipedia contributors — Oophaga histrionica (adapted and translated; exact revision)
  2. NCBI Taxonomy — Oophaga histrionica (identity and game lineage)

Last fact check:

One discovery leads to another

Common toadA quiet night walk leads back to a crowded breeding pond.Bufo bufo ↗Cane toadA toad with a remarkably broad menu.Rhinella marina ↗European tree frogToe discs connect a pond-breeding frog to life above the ground.Hyla arborea ↗