'Phantasmal' bioweapon drug-sweat microfrogs bred in UK

Tiny, exceptionally toxic "phantasmal frogs" - of a type used by jungle-dwelling blowgunners to poison their darts - have reproduced in captivity for the first time at a Portsmouth aquarium, in a triumph for British batrachian-breeding boffinry. Epipedobates tricolor next to a half-Euro coin. Credit: R Kimmel Rumours persist …

[Anonymous John]

I for one

Welcome our new poisonous micro-frog overl

NO CARRIER

[Destroy All Monsters]

Won't the government do something?

They will wait until someone gets his illegal high and it is too late!

[ravenviz]

Spring news

This certainly is a great leap forward.

[Anonymous Coward]

However.

The frogs ability to produce the compounds are inexorably linked to its specific local diet (insects), unless thats reproduced the compounds will not be produced. You can buy frogs like these easily but licking them wont do you any harm as their food doesnt contain the associated compounds needed to produce the toxin. I'll bet that its more difficult to sustain their natural diet than it is to breed em.

However, i like frogs so way to go....

[Anonymous Coward]

re however

As an owner of some exotic insect eating cold blooded creatures I can tell you you would be surprised at the variety of insects you can get.

I bet if you knew what to give them you could easily find the insects you would need. Though some may come a fairly hefty cost for feeding to an amphibian, especially if your looking for a cheaper alternative hallucinogenic.

Now to the pub for my own dietary needs

[Ed Blackshaw]

Not only deadly...

...but a bargain at 2 for a euro!

[Ian Halstead]

But...

Michael Palin called and wants to know if they are crunchy, and can you cross the Andes on one?

Paris? Frogs - Paris, Paris - frogs... oh never mind....

[Eponymous Cowherd]

Poisonous?

IIRC, poison dart frogs gain their toxicity from the insects they eat, which, in turn, is obtained from the plants *they* eat.

If these frogs aren't fed the right bugs, and the bugs weren't fed on the right plants, then they won't produce the poison.

[The Indomitable Gall]

New venture....

OpenPressRelease.org has completed its alpha pilot phase with amphibian specialists and will go into public beta on the 1st of May.

[Anonymous Coward]

First time?

Not so sure these are the first captive bred phantasmal dart frogs. I'd always thought that this was one of the easier species of dart frog to breed.

[Cliff]

Read the linked article

It discusses just the fact that captivity raised frogs are non-toxic, then talks about synthesising the poison.

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean they knew all along...

...that there was no risk of the frog coating the 1/2 euro coin with a deadly poison?

Oh well, I'll go and get me coat then.

[Anonymous Coward]

Unique opportunity

This unique opportunity is being made available for you on a basis of get in early, get in quick and then capitalise on your investment.

The main topic is to form a rare breeds frog farm at some secret destination in South America.

Your initial contributions will pay for land purchase and buildings essential for the project.

The business plan includes means and methods to assist other laboratories around the world in rearing certain species of frog for the assistive chemicals produced by the frog.

All research findings will be covered by intellectual ownership adding to the frog farm product portfolio. Any laboratory in the world making use of our research findings will have to licence our techniques and so secondary and tertiary income streams are assured even if the frog farm is no longer required for first level research.

Interested parties will be contacted in due time (you cannot contact us as we do not exist and even if we didn't you would not know about it :-) )

[ian 22]

Deadly frogs

And I thought it was the Frenchie's smell that would kill you.. Oh, wait.

So now we can expect our green and pleasant land to be laid waste by these havoc wreaking frogs? Or will we have a generation of frog-sucking epibatadine non-addicts roaming our fens in search of their next frog ^w fix?

[The old man from scene 24]

Units?

So what metric is used to measure strength of pain killers? There must be one if you can describe the frog toxin as 200 times the strength of morphine. More importantly, is this not a gap in the Register's portfolio of units? I propose a new unit: the microfrog - morphine being quite strong at 5000 microfrogs.

[Adrian Esdaile]

British batrachian-breeding boffinry.

Bloody brilliant boldface banner: BRAVO!

[Al fazed]

More ?

Is there something in the British genetic make-up which gives us a predilection for experimenting with dangerous drugs ?

It seems to go on at all levels of society, scientific, amateur, legal, or otherwise !

ALF