Phyllobates niche - 2, San Cipriano Reserve, Colombia

It was a lot of hard work but finally we found the #1 frog target of the San Cipriano Reserve location, which is also the hardest frog to find of our entire herping tour.

This one is in the Phyllobates genus, which contains only 6 species. They can be considered the true poison dart frogs as only these species are so poisonous as to actually be used in poison darts for the sake of hunting. As such, it's a tiny subset of the ~200 species in the Dendrobatidae family which has the somewhat misleading name "Poison dart frogs".

This particular species used to be considered a morph of the Kokoe Poison Frog (Phyllobates aurotaenia), yet is now treated as a separate species that is more closely related to Phyllobates terribilis (the ultimate poison frog).

Thus, technically the temporary species name is Phyllobates sp. aff. aurotaenia. A new species, but awaiting its final name. The consensus seems to be that the final name will ultimately be Phyllobates niche. I first figured "niche" simply meant "new", but instead it means dark-skinned. It's a reference and in honour of the people of the Chocó region, the African-Colombian community. The word is also used to describe the local music, which is a specific style of salsa music.

Update December 2024: new official name for this species is Phyllobates samperi.