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Ranitomeya fantastica Boulenger, 1883

CALL
Distribution: Known from varied habitats throughout northern San Martin and southern Loreto departments in north-central Peru, elevations from 150m up to roughly 900m. The highest morph diversity occurs in the transition zones between the lowlands and highlands around Tarapoto and Chazuta, though the Loreto lowlands near Yurimaguas also contain a variety of morphs. View type locality in Google Maps.
Ecology: Along with its wide distribution among habitat types comes substantial variation in life-history and reproductive ecology. Most morphs are semi-arboreal and found in primary forest, where they breed in tree-holes and bromeliads, though there are also a handful of terrestrial morphs.
Phylogenetic status: Nominal species of the fantasticus genetic group, sister to R. uakarii. This group also includes R. reticulata and undescribed species from Brazil.
Conservation status: This species has been a popular target for smugglers for several years. Smugglers have already severely compromised the nominal morph. Being now common in the hobby, the market for sustainably-harvested frogs has been drastically reduced. Also, the sustained smuggling pressure on the nominal morphs has diminished current populations to a shadow of what they formerly were. Most other morphs listed below have been discovered only within the last couple years and have already attracted the attention of smugglers.

Morph: Copper-head
This is the classic morph - a gold head stamped with a butterfly silhouette. This morph can be found in the Tarapoto area from 400-900m elevation. It is not an easy frog to catch, being both arboreal and extremely fast. They do however come down from their canopy bromeliads often enough to be occasionally seen. This morph does not extend into the lowlands.



Morph: White-banded
This is an interesting frog because it seems to share similarities with both the nominal and banded fantasticus, both morphologically and behaviorally. It is active among the leaf litter and lower understory and prefers tree-holes to bromeliads for reproduction.

Morph: Lowland
This morph was found in 2004 in lowland forest. Subsequent searches in 2005 have revealed that this is a highly variable frog. Some individuals have a nose spot, which is unlike the nominal morph found nearby. Many individuals appear to be excellent mimics of the local R. ventrimaculata.


Morph: banded fantastica (aka 'yellow banded fantastica')
The banded morph of fantastica is interesting in that it is a terrestrial frog. The forests near where this morph is found are substantially drier than typical fantastica habitat, which may be one reason the frogs stay near the humid ground. And as is obvious from the pictures, these have taken on a rather rotund build. Despite this, they appear to be using Dieffenbachia for breeding - a niche usually filled by R. imitator, which is strangely absent from this region. Further north, this frog does live sympatrically with imitator, but we know very little of their breeding behavior in these areas.


Morph: Reticulated
This frog was one of the prize jewels of one of our expeditions of 2005. With the weather as dry as it was, we would have been lucky to find one, but we must have been very lucky, because we found three. It is hard to say if this fantastica is terrestrial or arboreal - probably somewhere in between, as they were found on the ground, in the vegetation, and up in a tree-hole.

Morph: Orange/blue
In June 2005 we stumbled across a brilliant red-orange fantastica while on an expedition. The third picture is a comparison between the nominal fantastica and the orange/blue fantastica. Note that the orange coloration extends well down the forearms in this morph.


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