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Amphibia    Anura    Dendrobatidae  
Green-and-black Poison Dart Frog
Dendrobates auratus (Girard, 1855)
DEN-droh-BAY-teez — aw-RAY-tus
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SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 Native to southern Nicaragua, south to Colombia. It is established in the canyons above Honolulu, O'ahu, Hawai'i (McKeown, 1996, Diamond Head Publishing, Incorporated, Los Osos, California). (Krysko, Kenneth and Travis W. Taggart. 2025. Established Exotic Species. Pages 64-87 in Kirsten E. Nicholson (Editor), Scientific and Standard English Names of Amphibians and Reptiles of North America North of Mexico, with Comments Regarding Confidence in Our Understanding, 9th Edition. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Lawrence, Kansas. 87 pp.)

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Open icons indicate questionable records, including those with coordinate uncertainty greater than 10,000 m (approximately 6 miles). Click a marker to view metadata.
Occurrences:; 5,519 Total; 838 Museum; 4,681 Other

The locality database contains 8,094,832 records, and geographic and taxonomic errors exist. Logged-in, registered users may report a potential issue directly from the marker popup.
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Province/State Distribution:
United States: Hawaii

Taxonomic Etymology:
The scientific name Dendrobates auratus combines Greek and Latin roots describing the frog's habitat and appearance:
Dendrobates — From Greek: δένδρον (dendron) = “tree” βάτης (batēs) = “walker” or “one who walks” Together, Dendrobates means “tree walker”, referring to these frogs’ arboreal habits—they are often found on or near trees.
auratus — From Latin: auratus = “golden” or “gilded” (from aurum = “gold”) This refers to the bright golden-yellow coloration common in this species.

First instance(s) of published English names:
Gold Arrow-poison Frog (Dendrobates auratus: Cochran, Doris M. 1961. Living Amphibians of the World. Doubleday, Garden City, New York. pp.); Green and Black Poison Frog (Dendrobates auratus: Frank, N. and E. Ramus. 1995. Complete Guide to Scientific and Common Names of Amphibians and Reptiles of the World. N. G. Publishing Inc., Pottsville, Pennsylvania. pp.);


Selected References:
1855 Girard, Charles. Abstract of a report to Lieut. James M. Gilliss, U.S.N., upon the reptiles collected during the U.S.N. Astronomical Expedition to Chili. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 7:226
1975 Silverstone, Philip A. A revision of the poison-arrow frogs of the genus Dendrobates wagler. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Science Bulletin. 21:1-55
1993 Ford, Linda S. The phylogenetic position of the dart-poison frogs (Dendrobatidae) among anurans: An examination of the competing hypotheses and their characters. Ethology Ecology & Evolution 5:219-231
1996 McKeown, Sean. A Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians in the Hawaiian Islands. Diamond Head Publishing, Inc., Los Osos, California. 172pp.
2005 Lannoo, Michael (Editor) Amphibian Declines: The Conservation Status of United States Species. University fo California Press, Berkeley. 1115pp.
2013 Zug, George R. Reptiles and Amphibians of the Pacific Islands. University of California Press., Berkeley. pp.
2022 Meshaka, Walter E. Jr., R. Bruce Bury, Suzanne L. Collins, and Malcolm L. McCallum. Exotic Amphibians and Reptiles of the United States. University Press of Florida, Gainesville, Florida. 245pp.

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