Mitochondrial paraphyly in a polymorphic poison frog species (Dendrobatidae; D. pumilio).

Poison frogs (Dendrobatidae) have been the subject of scientific interest for a long time due to their bright colouration, astonishing phenotypic variability and complex breeding behaviour (Daly and Myers, 1967; Savage, 1968; Myers et al., 1983). In the past, species were diagnosed and their relationships evaluated mainly using morphological characteristics. However, the high phenotypic variation within some dendrobatid species as well as the occurrence of mimetic radiation (Symula et al., 2001; Darst and Cummings, 2006) complicated morphological diagnosis of species. Molecular markers offer an independent means to clarify species diagnoses and phylogenetic relationships in this group. Molecular phylogenetic trees of dendrobatids frequently show discrepancies from the actual systematic grouping based on morphological characters. Conspecific populations often do not form monophyletic clades (Symula et al., 2003; Vences et al., 2003; Noonan and Wray, 2006) and low variation of many molecular markers precludes statistically reliable phylogenetic resolution (Summers et al., 1997; Clough and Summers, 2000; Summers and Clough, 2001; Vences et al., 2003). Most phylogenetic analyses include only a small number of conspecific individuals usually from the same population. Genetic data that reveal intraspecific variability in dendrobatids sometimes show considerable divergence among populations (Summers et al., 1997; Lougheed et al., 1999). Lougheed et al. (1999) revealed that sequence divergences