Colour and pattern variation and Pleistocene phylogeographic origin of the strawberry poison frog, Oophaga pumilio, in Nicaragua.

The strawberry poison frog (Oophagapumilio), occurring from Panama to northern Nicaragua, is characterized by an extraordinary variation of aposematic colouration and pattern in some Panamanian populations and has become a model system for studying evolutionary and ecological processes. Phylogeographic analyses of this species so far included populations from Panama and Costa Rica only. Based on newly collected samples from representative sites across Nicara-gua, we here extend an existing data set of mitochondrial DNA sequences of the cytochrome b gene to analyse the phylo-geographic history of O. pumilio. The 62 sequenced samples from seven localities are more closely related to the northern clade of O. pumilio, four haplotypes are shared amongst populations from Costa Rica and southern Nicaragua, and one haplotype is shared amongst Costa Rica and northern Nicaragua. An analysis of colour patterns reveals slight differences within and amongst Nicaraguan populations, but all of them conform to the general pattern found also in Costa Rica, with a reddish dorsum and blue coloured limbs. Phylogeographic analysis suggests that the Nicaraguan populations originated by a Late Pleistocene range expansion northwards, and reconstructs the origin of the species in southeastern Costa Rica [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]