POISON dart frogs and some tropical bird species become poisonous by eating beetles that are laced with toxins, new research suggests.
Some frog species, such as those belonging to the South American genus Phyllobates, are notoriously toxic. Their skins produce poisons called batrachotoxins that cause powerful burning and numbing sensations and are deadlier than the well-known poisons curare and strychnine. In 1990, Jack Dumbacher of the Smithsonian’s Conservation and Research Center in Port Royal, Virginia, discovered that the skin and feathers of colourful Pitohui songbirds in Papua New Guinea are also laced with batrachotoxins.
But the origin of the toxins…
