Search results for "MEC"

Sex-ratio and male sexual characters in a population of Blue tits Parus caeruleus

2005

Sex allocation theory proposes that parents should bias the sex ratio of their offspring if the reproductive value of one sex is greater than that of the other. In the monogamous blue tit (Parus caeruleus), males have a greater variance in reproductive success than females, and high-quality males have higher reproductive success than high-quality females due to extrapair paternity. Consequently, females mating with attractive males are expected to produce broods biased toward sons, as sons benefit more than daughters from inheriting their father’s characteristics. Song and plumage color in birds are secondary sexual characters indicating male quality and involved in female choice. We used t…

Bank vole alarm pheromone chemistry and effects in the field

2021

Chemical communication plays an important role in mammalian life history decisions. Animals send and receive information based on body odour secretions. Odour cues provide important social information on identity, kinship, sex, group membership or genetic quality. Recent findings show, that rodents alarm their conspecifics with danger-dependent body odours after encountering a predator. In this study, we aim to identify the chemistry of alarm pheromones (AP) in the bank vole, a common boreal rodent. Furthermore, the vole foraging efficiency under perceived fear was measured in a set of field experiments in large outdoor enclosures. During the analysis of bank vole odour by gas chromatograph…

Cyclopoids feed selectively on free‐living stages of parasites

2020

Interaction of Oily Water with Floating Porous Ceramic and Immobilized Microorganisms

2018

Oily water was treated with porous ceramic granules and immobilized microorganisms. Floating granules with bulk density of 0.63-0.66 g cm-3were used. The sorption of motor oil was investigated for dry and wetted granules. Respiration experiments showed that microorganisms immobilized on floating ceramic carrier and treated with oily water were influenced by agitation of liquid. The treatment of oily water with low salinity (1-9 g L-1) showed that oil removal efficiency decreased after increasing water salinity. Likewise, oil removal efficiency decreased from 12 to 9% per gram of ceramic carrier after increasing the spill of oil from 9 to 35 g per square meter. Porous granules with immobiliz…

Sustainable Valorisation of Biowaste for Soilless Cultivation of Salvia Officinalis in a Circular Bioeconomy

2020

The aim of this work is to assess the usefulness of biowaste deriving from CircularBioeconomy (CBE) processes (i.e., vermicompost, compost and digestate), as growing substratesfor the partial or total replacement of peat, by measuring the vegetation biometric parameters ofsage (Salvia officinalis L.)&mdash

Differences in Cellular Encapsulation of Six Termite (Isoptera) Species Against Infection by the Entomopathogenic FungusMetarhizium anisopliae

2011

Termites (Isoptera) are eusocial insects, which live in an environment that can favor the spread of pathogens. To reduce the chance of an epizootic within a colony, termites have evolved many defense mechanisms. Most studies have focused on the social aspect of disease resistance, while the individual capacity of a termite to survive an infection remains poorly documented. We previously showed that when the eastern subterranean termite, Reticulitermes flavipes (Kollar), was exposed to the entomopathogenic fungus, Metarhizium anisopliae (Metch.) Sorokin, cellular encapsulation of the penetrating fungus was one of the last lines of defense for individual termites to prevent internal mycosis. …

Does Population Density Determine the Mating Strategy in Males of the Water Strider Aquarius paludum?

2018

Mating behavior of a large Aquarius paludum paludum (Fabricius 1794) (Hemiptera: Gerridae: Gerrini) population was investigated on several field surveys during the mating season. Both types of mating behavior known for semi-aquatic true bugs were observed in the studied population: aggressive Type I mating for non-territorial males and unaggressive Type II mating for the territorial males. Some males establish individual territories at the lake shores that they defend for around one hour and switch to aggressive mating if they fail to attract a female to mate, while most males remain non-territorial. Radial 1–1.5 meter territories were aggressively defended from other males, conflicts being…

Tettigoniidae (Orthoptera) ovipositing in old galls of Dryocosmus kuriphilus (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae)

2016

Authors report some biological notes on two species of Orthoptera Tettigoniidae emerged from old spongy-woody galls of Dryocosmus kuriphilus Yasumatsu, 1951 collected in April 2015 from some areas of Sicily (Italy): Leptophyes sicula Kleukers, Odé et Fontana, 2010 (Phaneropterinae) and Cyrtaspis scutata (Charpentier, 1825) (Meconematinae). Between the end of April and the first days of May 30 neanids emerged from the galls, were reared and their cycle followed. While L. sicula laid eggs in groups, C. scutata laid single eggs inside the galls; both species have shown that in a few years they adapted in exploiting this new shelter for egg laying. No interaction with the gall inducing insect w…

Design and Implementation of a Smart System to Control Aromatic Herb Dehydration Process

2020

Drying is a process aimed at reducing the water content in plant materials below a limit where the activity of microbes and decomposing enzymes deteriorate the quality of medicinal and aromatic plants. Today, the interest of consumers towards medicinal and aromatic herbs has registered a growing trend. This study aims at designing a low-cost real-time monitoring and control system for the drying process of aromatic herbs and evaluating drying efficacy on the microbial community associated with the studied herbs. Hot-air drying tests of sage and laurel leaves were carried out in a dryer desiccator cabinet at 40 &deg

Plant functional and taxonomic diversity in European grasslands along climatic gradients

2021

Aim European grassland communities are highly diverse, but patterns and drivers of their continental-scale diversity remain elusive. This study analyses taxonomic and functional richness in European grasslands along continental-scale temperature and precipitation gradients. Location Europe. Methods We quantified functional and taxonomic richness of 55,748 vegetation plots. Six plant traits, related to resource acquisition and conservation, were analysed to describe plant community functional composition. Using a null-model approach we derived functional richness effect sizes that indicate higher or lower diversity than expected given the taxonomic richness. We assessed the variation in abso…