Splendid Poison Frog

Oophaga speciosa has a snout-vent length ranging from 28-31 mm. it is relatively large and has its inner tarsal fold reduced to a tubercle (Savage 1986). Its skin is smooth except for the posterior belly and the ventral surface of the thighs. The tympanum is round, with a diameter slightly greater than one half the diameter of the eye (Silverstone 1975). Coloration: Its color in life is red. In preservative, it is entirely gray except for a few possible light spots (Silverstone 1975).

The Splendid Poison Frog hails from Panama, in a small geographic range found near the western Cordillera de Talamanca Central, adjacent to Costa Rica, at around 1370 m above sea level. It is mainly a terrestrial species that is found in the humid lowlands and very wet montane forest (Stuart et al. 2008).

O. speciosa exhibits uniparental care. Females deposit eggs in leaf litter, and once the eggs hatch, the females carry the tadpoles to small accumulations of water, formed in the leaf/stem axils of plants. Females return to feed tadpoles with infertile eggs (Summers 1999). It is common for males to be very aggressive when defending territories for foraging and oviposition sites (Wells 2007).

Its main threat is habitat loss from logging and human settlement, but it is also threatened by the pet trade. (Stuart et al. 2008).

O. speciosa is collected for the pet trade (Stuart et al. 2008).