Abstract
Neotropical frogs of the family Dendrobatidae exhibit elaborate social behavior and parental care involving egg attendance and transport of tadpoles to aquatic habitats (Silverstone, 1973; Wells, 1978, 1980a, b; Duellman and Trueb, 1986). Larval transport by the male, female, or both has been observed for several dendrobatids (Wells, 1977) and is considered a synapomorphy of the family (Weygoldt, 1986). The continual guarding of the nest-from oviposition to hatching-has also been described as an ancestral condition in the Dendrobatidae (Weygoldt, 1986). During the course of a comparative study of reproductive and social behavior of two sympatric species of Colostethus (Junca, 1994), I observed reproductive features for one of them that differed markedly from other dendrobatids. Colostethus stepheni, Martins 1990, shows complete terrestrial development; at no time are tadpoles carried to bodies of water to complete their development (Junca et al, in press). As I describe in this report, parental care in the form of nest guarding, which in the other species of dendrobatids is terminated after depositing the tadpoles in water, is continued through metamorphosis in C. stepheni. Fieldwork was undertaken in reserve 1501 of the
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