Epipedobates tricolor is a great frog, well worth searching out. The brilliant colors of many tricolor morphs rival any dart frog, while their boldness make them easily viewed. E. tricolor also have a lively nature and wonderful, trill like, call that make them endearing.

I had though "tricolor" must have been a mistake in naming due to some twist of fate, until I got a bunch of 'Moraspunga' froglets, with their greens, bronzes and blacks. The medial dorsal strip and lateral stripes are a mint green to a spring green depending on the individual. Sitting on a background of bronze, the medial stripe is reticulated and starts as a large wedge at the snout and tapers down to a raggedy point near the vent. Bellow the lateral strips are blackish stripes. Clown like, has been used to describe the look of the belly, and it fits. With its large white spots on a black background, Moraspunga bellies inevitably make me think of clown clothing. Also, when their diet is complete, they have bright orange/ red flash marks on the back of their thighs.

I had fallen in love with the Santa Isabel morph and Moraspungas are very similar in (though, their skin patterns and colors quite different). They are as bold, active and possibly even better breeders. In the mid to late 90s wild caughts of this morph of tricolors were coming in very often. The parents of my group, were caught in the early 90s and after hopping through different frog collections they ended up at a zoo.