Painted Antnest Frog - top view, Sani Lodge, Ecuador
The frog is named after the peculiar behavior where they nest directly inside the massive nests of leafcutter ants..and somehow get away with it unharmed. The dominant theory for now is that they emit a chemical that signals the ants not to attack. However it works, it provides an ultra safe nesting site as nobody messes with leafcutters, they are the largest animal society on the planet, after humans.
It would still spent most of his life outside the nest where it deploys another tactic: it mimics a particular poison frog, thereby making predation not attractive.
"Lithodytes" is a genus of frogs in the family Leptodactylidae. It is monotypic, being represented by the single species, "Lithodytes lineatus", the gold-striped frog or painted antnest frog. It is found in tropical South America where it lives in humid forests among the leaf litter.
