h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What 3 points for guessing its phylum? How many for the species?

Well, if it's not a hornet or wasp, is it an ?

RF

I suspect it eats the detritus from the bottom of discarded KFC bargain buckets.

Well I toyed with giving a DGI for that, but decided to be generous.

If you can manage species, genus or family, I'll be very impressed and +3 points per taxonomical class will be deservedly yours.

RF, none of those.

P.S going out for a bit - keep 'em coming I'll reply to all when I get back.

Masonry or wood?

The thing that I find interesting about these frogs is that their toxicity decreases if they are fed other insects, so when in captivity, after a while they can be handled without danger.

do they eat beetles??

Yes!!

Taff +3

I was serious about my taxonomic quip earlier - any advances on that front?

Is it a beetle of the species Poisonus poisonii? (subspecies verypoisonus)?

RF

that was a bit of a no-brainer

attenborough once stated there are more beetles than any other type of insect

Took y'all long enough though didn't it?

Is that everyone done here - and shall I write up the scores, or do you all have more to give?

I guess that's a yes.

Too tired to go number crunching this evening but [ note to self:] work out points tomorrow...

QI - if all those grids are giving you square vision, try this instead!
------------------------


Correct (+3)
------------------------
GT (47) - 'it lives on Papua New Guinea...'
Feisor (79) - 'Hicks The Marathon Poisoner'
RF & Taff (89, 97) - 'poison dart frogs get their poison from what they eat'
Toybox (98) - '...it's an insect. '
Taff (110) - 'is it a beetle?'



QI Bonus (+6)
------------------------
Icy (70) - 'the uses of botulinium.'
Pedro (78) - 'snake toxins'


DGI Bonus (+1)
------------------------
Taff (19) - 'Caterpillar that becomes poisonous due to their diet...'
GT (21) - doesn't need to break the skin
Taff (51) - Poisonous birds in New Guinea rainforests.
Icy (70) - 'There a myth...'

Klaxon (-5)
------------------------
RF (66) - 'Cobras'
Ekky (81) - 'Jellyfish'


Elf Bonus (+2)
------------------------
Clive




Total to be added or subtracted.
------------------------
Taff +8
Icy +7
Pedro +6
GT +4
Feisor +3
Toybox +3
Clive +2
RF -2
Ekky -5

Icy sought to warn me in post 70 that: "There's a myth that the most poisonous creature is the two-inch-long golden poison frog "which shoots darts that knock monkeys out of the trees of Colombia's rainforests".

Indeed there is. Which is why had anyone ventured the posion dart frog specifically they'd have received a klaxon.

However there was, until recently, a genuine and persistent mystery as to why the golden poison dart frog was so poisonous. As was pointed out in the thread, they loose their toxicity when reared in captivity, suggesting therefore that the deadly compounds they generate in their skin are sourced from something else in their diet.

Starting in 1992 but as recently as 2004 - some of this mystery started to be cleared up.

In 1992 Ornithologist John Dumbacher, now with the California Academy of Sciences, worked with John Daly, world expert on poison-dart frog chemistry. Between them they discerned that a species of toxic birds known to the tribes who inhabit Papua New Guinea.

Five species of New Guinean birds of the genus Pitohui as well as a species of a second toxic bird genus, Ifrita were identified to be producing the same kind of Batrachotoxins of the poison dart frog, a powerful alkaloid series of toxins, which in the birds were identified in their feathers and skin .

Specifically three passerine (song) bird species family Pachycephalidae which are endemic to New Guinea. Prior to this no defensive toxin had been isolated and identified from avian skin or feathers, thus making the findings on new Guinea a genuine moment of discovery.
For what it implied is that whatever was the unknown source of the dart-frogs poison was common to both Columbia and New Guinea.

The beetle responsible was discovered when the stomach contents were analysed.

The are very small beetles however they possess a high concentration of toxin. It's a neurotoxic steroidal alkaloid, collectively called Batrachotoxins,
Batrachotoxins occur at high levels in three species of the true poison-dart frogs
of western Colombia

On a weight basis, the batrachotoxins are among the most toxic natural substances known, being 250-fold more toxic than strychnine, fifteen times more potent than curare, ten times more potent than tetrodotoxin, from the puffer fish; although it is far less toxic than botulinium (for which Icy got a QI bonus) - I specified animals and poisonous to winnow out bacteria and other venomous creatures which use toxins for attack where poisons are defensive. A lethal dose of Batrachotoxins to a human is equivalent in weight to two grains of table salt. By flooding the area with sodium ions, Batrachotoxin kills through permanently and irreversably blocking nerve transmission to the muscles producing structural changes attacking the peripheral nervous systems and arrhythmia and arrest in cardiac systems and death.

The beetle belongs to the family Melyridae - and it is suspected that a species of Melyridae is responsible for the columbia frog's toxicity, though access to the region to determine this is dangerous and as far as I know yet to be confirmed. But the chemical identification with the toxic birds of New Guinea are highly suggestive that the source of The Poison Dart Frog's toxicity has now been solved.