---
title: "Harlequin Poison Frog (Oophaga histrionica) | AnimalTracks.wiki"
description: "A rainforest frog just 2.5 to 3.8 centimetres long, painted like a warning label, its skin toxins collected straight from the ants, termites and beetles it eats."
image: "https://animaltracks.wiki/images/animals/harlequin-poison-frog-1.webp"
published: "2026-09-07"
updated: "2026-09-27"
---
# Harlequin Poison Frog (*Oophaga histrionica*)
> **Status**: Checked against 6 sources, listed under Sources below.
> **Tagline**: A rainforest frog just 2.5 to 3.8 centimetres long, painted like a warning label, its skin toxins collected straight from the ants, termites and beetles it eats.
> **Soundtrack Vibe**: Latin Psychedelic Cumbia & Tropicalia // Systema Solar, "Mi Kolombia"
> **Soundtrack Links**: [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/23RR77ngJ2jX8rws16jytA)
> **Vibe Match**: Buzzing electro-cumbia for a frog whose male calls from a perch with a trilling, buzzing call, dressed in neon warning colours.
## Biological Superpowers & Stats
- **Taxonomy**: *Oophaga histrionica*
- **Danger Level**: High
- **Conservation Status**: Critically Endangered ([IUCN Red List](https://doi.org/10.2305/iucn.uk.2019-2.rlts.t144231367a144443857.en))
- **Superpower**: Skin toxins collected from its prey, able to repel or even kill a small predator
- **Habitat**: Leaf litter on the floor of humid tropical rainforest in Colombia's Chocó region
- **Diet**: Ants, termites, small beetles and other small arthropods found in leaf litter
- **Tags**: aposematic, colorful, toxic-chemical, amphibian, rainforest
## Natural History & Behavior
## A Living Warning Sign
The **Harlequin Poison Frog** (*Oophaga histrionica*) does not try to hide: it forages by day, relying on its warning colours. It measures only 2.5 to 3.8 centimetres long, and the AnAge ageing database records a maximum lifespan of 9.1 years in captivity. First described in 1845 as a bright orange frog with black web markings all over its body, it turned out to vary far more than that. Animal Diversity Web's 2001 account lists base colours of orange, yellow, red, white and powder-blue, with some colour forms varying from valley to valley. The black webbing ranges from thin stripes to speckled, broken lines to an all-black frog with a few coloured spots. The same account says the bright markings probably act as a warning to potential predators.
## Borrowed Poison
The frog does not make its toxin from scratch. Animal Diversity Web says it collects the toxin from its prey, mainly ants, termites, small beetles and other small arthropods in the leaf litter, and deposits it in its skin. The result is a highly toxic poison capable of repelling or even killing small predators, and potentially dangerous to people who handle the frog.
The "poison dart frog" name is borrowed too. Poison frogs are often called that because the Chocó people of western Colombia tip blowgun darts with frog toxin, but San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance names one species as the frog they use, the golden poison frog, and says scientists know of only three frog species used for darts.
> **A Jammed Nerve Signal** In poison dart frogs, Animal Diversity Web says, the skin toxin blocks nerve signals at the acetylcholine receptor of the neuromuscular junction, the switch nerves use to fire a muscle.
## A Mother's Borrowed Nursery
Breeding runs through the rainy season. A male calls from a perch with a trilling buzz to draw in a female, and once paired, she lays her eggs on the surface of a leaf while he follows behind and fertilises them. She stays by the clutch to guard it. About ten days later, the tadpoles break free of the jelly-like egg mass and swim onto her back using their tails, and she carries them one at a time to a separate pocket of water, usually pooled in a bromeliad's leaf axils. The tadpoles are obligate egg feeders: she returns every other day to lay infertile eggs in the water for them to eat. After three months of metamorphosis, the young frog climbs out of the bromeliad to start life on land.
## One Frog, At Least Five
Animal Diversity Web's 2001 account placed the harlequin poison frog in rainforest from western Ecuador north through Colombia's Chocó region, but that single-species picture turned out to be too simple. A 2018 study combining genetic, morphological and ecological data across the histrionica complex found at least five species inside it, three of them new to science, some in small isolated populations outside any protected area. Its authors wrote that some of these species should be considered among the most vulnerable frogs in the Neotropics. The IUCN lists *Oophaga histrionica* itself as Critically Endangered, assessed in 2019.
## Frequently Asked Questions
### Where does the harlequin poison frog's poison come from?
From its food. Animal Diversity Web says the toxin is collected from the frog's prey, which is mostly ants, termites, small beetles and other tiny leaf-litter arthropods, and then deposited in its skin. The toxins are spread over the frog's entire surface. *(Source: [Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan]())*
### How do harlequin poison frog mothers raise their tadpoles?
With eggs. After hatching, the tadpoles ride on their mother's back and she ferries them one at a time to small pools, usually in the leaf axils of bromeliads. The tadpoles cannot develop properly without her unfertilised eggs, which she drops into each pool every other day. Turning into a frog takes them three months. *(Source: [Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan]())*
### Is the harlequin poison frog actually one species?
Not exactly. When researchers compared DNA, anatomy and ecology across the frogs grouped under this name, they found at least five species, three of them new to science. Some live in small, isolated populations outside any protected area. *(Source: [Posso-Terranova & Andrés 2018]())*
## Sources
1. [Oophaga histrionica. Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan.]()
2. [Poison Frog. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance Animals and Plants.]()
3. [Oophaga histrionica (Berthold, 1845). Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS).]()
4. [AnAge entry for Oophaga histrionica. AnAge: The Animal Ageing and Longevity Database, Human Ageing Genomic Resources.]()
5. [Posso-Terranova & Andrés (2018). Multivariate species boundaries and conservation of harlequin poison frogs. Molecular Ecology.]()
6. [Oophaga histrionica. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2019: e.T144231367A144443857.]()
*Published September 7, 2026. Last updated September 27, 2026.*
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