| Discovery | Jungfer, K.-H. (1989): Pfeilgiftfrosche der Gattung Epipedobates mit rot granuliertem Rücken aus dem Oriente von Ecuador und Peru. Salamandra 25(2): 81-98. |
| Type locality | 'Ecuador: Napo: 10 km N Puerto Francisco de Orellana (=Coca)' |
| Holotype | Holotype (ZFMK 49073) and some syntypes (8 exx, ZFMK 49074 49081) are located in the Zoologisches Forschungsinstitut und Museum Alexander Koenig in Bonn, Germany. Other syntypes (43 exx, MHNG 2247.1-43) are located in the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, Genève, Switzerland 2 specimens (SMNS 7085 7086) in the Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde in Stuttgart, Germany. |
| Etymology | Epipedobates: Greek 'epipedos' means bottom and 'bates' walker; referring to the terrestrial way of life. bilinguis: Latin 'bi' meaning two and 'linguis' coming from 'lingua, ae', meaning language; referring to the call of this species, that has two pulses. |
| Classification | Epipedobates bilinguis is a member of the petersi-group within the genus Epipedobates. |
| Synonymy | English name: Ecuadorian Poison Frog Often confused with parvulus. Under the names Dendrobates parvulus, Phyllobates parvulus and Epipedobates parvulus additional information can be found. |
| History | Karl-Heinz Jungfer described Epipedobates bilinguis, in his survey of Epipedobates-species, with a granular red back from Ecuador and Peru. Jungfer only used material from a dozen specimens send to the Zoologische Forschungsinstitut and Museum Alexander Koenig in 1985. This collection contains related species as well which made comparison of live and preserved animals possible. The species can be distinguished from Van E.parvulus by their yellow, black bordered spots on the upper side of the thighs. Silverstone (1976: 36-37), in his revision of Dendrobatidae, was very reserved about describing new species and saw both species as one. In the past a lot of data on the biology and behavior of E.bilinguis had been published. Crump (1974: 5, 14) studied the breeding behaviour of this species near Santa Cecilia on the northern bank of the Rio Aguarico, a tributary of the Rio Napo, in eastern Ecuador. Duellman (1978), Weygoldt (1983: 566-571) and Wevers (1988: 51-53) published about this species using the name Dendrobates parvulus as well. Mudde & Van Wijngaarden (1990, in Lacerta 48(6): 172-174) published a lot of data on the biotopes of E.bilinguis from eastern Ecuador, without giving exact locations. They tried to prevent that the animals would be captured by others. Rainer Schulte (1999, in his book Pfeilgiftfrosche, "Artenteil Peru": 261) things of E.bilinguis as a species in the E.petersi-group. According to him E.bilinguis is not closely related to E.parvulus, who he places in its own group and thinks to be closer related to species like E.espinosai and E. tricolor. |
| Physical description | Epipedobates bilinguis is a small too medium sized frog from the genus Epipedobates with a maximum size of 22.7 mm and a granular red-brown and black back. The snout, seen from above is round. The upper lip reaches over the lower lip seen from aside. The tympanum is oval and higher then wide. Above the tympanum there is a plead of skin. Maxillaries and premaxillaire teeth are present in the mouth. The skin on the upper side of the body is strongly granular and smooth on the flanks and underside. The skin on the arms is not granular. The third finger is longer then the second and the fourth. The fingertips are slightly broader and webbings are absent. On the back the granula are red to red-brown on a black base. The sides of the head and shoulders are black. The flanks are black on black on top and bright blue-green on the underside with black lines and spots, often in a web-pattern. The same colouring is on the belly and underside of the hind legs. A blue-white stripe goes from the lower jaw to the upper side of the front leg. The limbs are dark grey to black-brown on the top. On the upper arm and on top of the thighs there are big, sharp bordered yellow spots. Other specimens are known with very small or partially missing spots e.g. coming from Lago Agrio. The females are bigger then the males. Jungfer measured 43 adult males with sizes ranging from 16,5 to 20,2 mm (average 18,3 mm) and 32 females with sizes ranging from 18,6 to 22,7 mm (average 20,4). Other differences in gender have not been found. The males have a very typical call consisting of a series of two pulses. The second pulse is a bit longer then the first and of the same tone. |
| Distribution | All known locations are in the north-east of Ecuador in the river basin of the Rio Napo. North east of Puerto Francisco de Orellana (=Coca) is the type locality. Other known locations are further to the east along the Rio Napo. Rene de Haas, Jan Mooy and Jan Verkade (1998-feb. personal account of Mr. Woeltjes) found this species close to Misahualli, together with E.zaparo. This location is in the upper river basin of the Rio Napo as well. According to Schulte (1999: 261) E.bilinguis lives in the areas bordering to the known distribution area in the north-east of Peru, but there is no confirmation at this time. Rodriguez & Duellman (1994: 19) mention this species as E.parvulus with yellow spots on the limbs from the surroundings of Iquitos in north-east Peru, but Schulte suspects they simply used data from Duellman (1978) without checking. |
| Biotope | The type specimens from the surroundings of Coca came from an undisturbed tropical rainforest. According to Crump (1974) and Duellman (1978) Dendrobates parvulus (=E.bilinguis) is a inhabitant of the forest and forest edges, living near the bottom between leave litter and logs. Mudde and Van Wijngaarden (1990: 172-174) found them in eastern Ecuador about 200 m elevation in undisturbed rainforest as well as in secondary forest and overgrown cacao plantations. This corresponds with the findings of De Haas, Mooy & Verkade. In the wet leave litter they grub around all day looking for food. Temperatures were between 20 and 28°C. Humidity was between 90 and 100 %. |
| Care and breeding | A couple or trio requires a vivarium of 40 x 40 x 40 cm. The walls and bottom have to be decorated with moist absorbing material and a lot of plants. Spraying on a regular basis is necessary. The eggs can be laid in petri dishes under cocohuts or in plastic film boxes. E.bilinguis is a shy species that will not show himself a lot in the vivarium. They eat all kinds of small insects like fruit flies, mites, springtails, aphids, etc. Erik Wevers saw males impress each other by stretching their hind legs showing the yellow spots on the legs. To lay her eggs, the male lures the female to a suitable place. Jungfer mentions a head amplexus. The 6-15 (Jungfer mentions 6-13, Wevers mentions 10-15) eggs hatch after 2,5 weeks and the tadpoles are brought to the water by the male. They can be raised together without problems. After about 2 months they climb out of the water having a piece of tail. The larvae finish their metamorphoses on land to grow to 8 mm froglets. |
| Foto's |
  The foto's published here with permission from © Jan Verkade, from his CD Herpetofauna Ecuador 
The foto published here with the kind permission of © Mick Bajcar |
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