Data from: Continuous variation in an aposematic pattern affects background contrast, but is not associated with differences in microhabitat use

In March 2020, we photographed 35 Oophaga sylvatica (Perla morph) at the private forest reserve ‘Bosque Protector la Perla’ near La Concordia, Ecuador. This represented a comprehensive survey of every individual observed in the area by a team of five experienced observers, over two days. The Perla morph is approximately 26 mm in length and is predominantly black with a red pattern that varies from small spots to larger irregular blotches, to whole patches of homogenous color. Previous work suggests that the frogs' colors have very high internal and external contrast, and that UV reflectance is minimal both from the frogs and their natural leaf litter background (Yeager and Barnett 2020). We photographed each frog within the microhabitat where it was first observed, following methods detailed in Yeager and Barnett (2020), Yeager and Barnett (2021). In brief, each image was taken using a quartz converted UV sensitive Canon EOS 7D camera combined with a metal body NIKKOR EL 80 mm lens. As UV reflectance is negligible in this population (Yeager and Barnett 2020) we did not include UV wavelengths and only utilized images in the human visible range (400 – 700 nm). The camera was mounted on a tripod and the lens was fitted with a Baader UV-IR blocking filter that allowed transmission from 420 - 680 nm. All photographs were taken under natural ambient lighting, each image included a 10% and a 77% neutral reflectance standard, and we saved all photographs in RAW format.