Summary
Brood care in Dendrobates pumilio not only involves egg attendance and tadpole transport, but also tadpole attendance and feeding. Each tadpole is carried by the attending female to a water-filled bromelial leaf axil and regularly fed on unfertilized eggs. The tadpole responds to an approaching adult with a specialized, conspicuous behavior signalling its presence. Male-male competition includes fighting, egg eating, and male tadpole transport. D. pumilio is the first frog known to feed its free-living larvae.
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Weygoldt, P. Complex brood care and reproductive behaviour in captive poison-arrow frogs, Dendrobates pumilio O. Schmidt. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 7, 329–332 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00300674
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00300674