| Discovery |
R. Schulte, 1968
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| Classification |
Dendrobates Imitator belongs to the Dendrobates Quinqevittatus group ( also f.i. D. Variabilis, Biolat, Fantasticus ), genus : dendrobates, Family : dendrobatidae, Order : Anurans, Class : Amphibians. See the description given by Peter Mudde of the different subspecies in the Quinqevittatus group
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| Geography |
The north east of Peru
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| Biotope |
The rainforests of Peru, at 250 - 1000 M above sea level. Imitator lives near holding plants ( plants that can hold water, like bromelaids ) . In fact the male will defend his own territory, which is usually a bromelaid. The vivarium therefore should have a number of bromelaid and preferably the larger versions, since the eggs and tadpoles need some space and water. The temperature during the day is around 25 degrees celcius, during the night it coold to about 20 degrees celcius. Humidity is high at 80 - 100 %.
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Care and
conditions |
As mentioned Dendrobates Imitator can be territorial, although not as strong as with Pumilio. In a vivarium you can keep several males, providing there are enough bromelaids around. High vivaria are perfect for these climbers. The vivarium must be very tight, if you experience escaping fruit flies, there is a fair chance that you will loose these frogs at a certian time too. The space required is difficult to say. They do need a lot of bromelaids to feel safe and secure and to start breeding. temperatures and humidity is rather standard. The frog can be kept with other larger species, preferably ground dwellers like D. Tinctorius/Azureus, or P. Terriblis/bicolor. Although it is a relatively simple frog to keep, it is not a beginners frog, too precious to loose.
|
personal
experience |
They usually stay in the top regions of the vivarium and are rarely seen on the ground level ( certainly not around the 2 - 3 time bigger tinctorius !! ). The vivarium has to be extremely tight, even the smallest opening is enough to loose an animal through. I personally had this experience unfortunately, so one of them died in the light hood. Were he had to pass an opening of a few mm ( max 2-3 mm ). During the morning they walk the wet windows. Due to their size they are quick and athletic, in a heavily planted large vivarium it takes quite some time to find them, although you get used to the places were they hide. The males make a nice short tjirp sound, much shorter as the leucomelas and higher in tone.
Eggs are deposited on the side of a bromaid, not in the water itself. males transport the tadpoles and the females feed them with eggs. Therefore you can leave the care of the larvea to the parents. Cleaning ( or refreshing ) the water in the bromelaids can help with a hand mister. Striking is the fact that the male seems to call the female, when it is time for feeding the "children" The sound of the call is lower and softer when he request this service. The small froglets ( very small) can be grown with small fruitflies, although it is advised to feed them with springtales, which is a lot smaller and easier to eat for these minifrogs. ( this last part is a small summary of the dutch report of Jaap Stelder who wrote this for the dutch dendrobates group )
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| Foto's |
The first 4 dendrobates imitator foto's were received from Jaap Stelder and are his copyright
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| Films |
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| S P E C I A L C O L U M N of ©Peter Mudde |
Some notes
on the Dendrobates quinquevittatus-group
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| Taxonomy can change rather fast. Once, in 1975, Silverstone recognised Dendrobates quinquevittatus as only a single species, part of the minutus-group. Now Dendrobates quinquevittatus is the nomer of its own group, containing eleven species. Some of them were in some way or another already known to Silverstone as well, but seven of them are from after 1980. |
There has been quite some confusion about the names of the frogs in his group, and there probably will be for years to come. This is one attempt to clear out some of the confusion.
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| The most confusing part has been that Dendrobates quinquevittatus has been regarded for years to belong to the green and golden striped frogs, as we know them from French Guyana and parts of Ecuador. Then, the real one was found and differed quite remarkably from the ones hobbyists used to call 'quinquevittatus'. So, the hobbyists' quinquevittatus got a new name. Now they should be called 'ventrimaculatus'. Be aware though, there are still several species under that name.
New species are yet to come and old names are available.
I have tried to make watercolours of a typical specimen of each species.
Some explaining text will be necessary though. |
The species:
| Dendrobates quinquevittatus
the real one is from Northern Brazil. It is a fast and rather shy frog, living on the forest floor. Larvae were found in all kinds of little waters on the forest floor, sometimes three larvae in one container.
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Dendrobates castaneus
is called castaneus because the frogs were observed to deposit their larvae in the empty shells of Brazil nuts. Sometimes there were up to six together in one shell and even other dendrobatid larvae lived together with them. The frogs live on the forest floor and are shy and fast.
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Dendrobates vanzolinii
has not been well observed in nature.
I have failed to find many biological facts.
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Myers and Daly have put Dendrobates variabilis in the fridge, since they find the type description a bit sloppy (not their words). For vivarium practice, it would be better to recognise this form for the time being. Points of recognition are: the single black blotch on the nose and only four recognisable toes. It is not a floor-dweller, but lives up to six meters high on trunks etc. Larvae are black, on which lighter stripes appear later on.
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| Dendrobates imitator
is the five-toed counterpart of variabilis, with two blotches on the nose and a net-like pattern on the back. Larvae are greenish on which black blotches appear. These frogs are also not really floor dwellers, but live a half to one and a half meter above it on the foliage.
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| Dendrobates biolat
has a characteristic yellow cross on the head. It lives on bamboo and has greyish larvae.
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| Dendrobates lamasi
has a yellow venter and a whitish chest. Also three stripes seem to be characteristic. These little frogs live in bromeliads and have black larvae.
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| Dendrobates fantasticus
is the giant of the group. The orange head is characteristic. Legs can have a white of a bluish pattern. These frogs are kept in captivity with some success. They are not as shy as other species in this group.
This species too lives above the forest floor,
in the foliage.
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| Dendrobates reticulatus
is small again. Its does live on the forest floor and can occasionally be found in large numbers together. It lives in the leaf litter, but in captivity it tends to seek shelter higher up in the vivarium, if possible in bromeliads. This frog too has been successfully bred in captivity and captive breeds should be obtainable. Remember, they do not grow much larger than those 16 mm.
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| Dendrobates sirensis
was only temporarily placed in this group.
It is only known from a few specimens.
They are fast and jumpy, probably living
in tree crowns.
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| Dendrobates ventrimaculatus
is still a compound species. From near Mishahuali, Ecuador I know two rather different forms (I have painted both).
The French Guyana frogs will probably differ from these two forms again. If you have a frog like this and you don't know the exact name, call it ventrimaculatus and you'll be safe for the day. Remember well: if you want to breed frogs, you'd better have them recognise each other. So, you could try to mix the orange frogs from Ecuador with the greenish ones from Guyana, stating 'they're both ventrimaculatus' but then you can be quite sure they won't breed and if they do, the result will be hybrids. The bottom line of taxonomic is: if you want to breed, be sure the frogs are from the same species, and the same form and about the same origin. If they don't, they might be two different species after a next publication.
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| Of course, this is not all my own knowledge.
It is the result of reading a lot of articles, which I will not mention here because of the space it takes. Ask the literature list by e-mail: vivariapost@palmblad.com |
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