Banded imitators in the wild!

During my trip to Peru, we searched for Ranitomeya imitator ‘Banded’ in the Tarapoto region, near the town of Sauce. As we were there in the middle of the rainy season, the roads were terrible, and we encountered many flooded areas and falling rocks along the way.

After a short walk through the pouring rain along a beautiful creek, we found imitators perched on the large leaves of Xanthosoma or Dieffenbachia, or hiding in the axils of these plants.

Ranitomeya imitator 'Banded'

To give you an idea of their habitat, I took some photos right on the spot.

As you can see it was love at first sight.