Dietary specialization predicts toxicity in recently diverged lineages of poison frogs

Bright colourations allow dart-poison frogs to advertise bad taste and reduce predation. Several studies have proposed that skin alkaloids of poison frogs come from dietary sources, namely arthropods such as ants and mites. Evidence suggests concomitant variations in toxicity and diet specialization among poison frog genera. However, no studies have evaluated whether such patterns hold at the intraspecific level. We tested whether diet and toxicity were correlated among five Oophaga lineages, through toxicity bioassays and stomach contents analyses. Despite all species have similar diets, and behave as specialist predators, we found that small variations in diet composition imply noticeable variations in diet breadth and toxicity within lineages. We provide the first line of evidence confirming concomitant variations between dietary specialization and toxicity and bringing further support for the diet?toxicity hypothesis at the finest phylogenetic scale.

• Autores: Arenas Chaves, Lina María
• Fecha de publicación: 2010
• Institución: Universidad de los Andes
• Repositorio: Séneca: repositorio Uniandes
• Idioma: eng
• OAI Identifier: oai:repositorio.uniandes.edu.co:1992/11305
• Acceso en línea: http://hdl.handle.net/1992/11305
• Palabra clave: Dendrobatidae - Alimentación y alimentos - Investigaciones; Dendrobatidae - Hábitos y conducta - Investigaciones; Biología
• Rights: openAccess
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/