Search results for "SYSTEMATICS"

Contribución al conocimiento de los murciélagos (Mammalia, Chiroptera) del Parque Natural de Penyagolosa (provincia de Castellón)

2019

Se exponen los principales resultados obtenidos en los muestreos efectuados en agosto de 2004 en el Parque Natural de Penyagolosa. La comunidad de quirópteros del Parque Natural está integrada por al menos 14 especies. Diez de ellas fueron localizadas en los muestreos, siendo ocho nuevas citas tras ellos. La revisión de la bibliografía e informes técnicos más recientes permiten añadir las restantes cuatro especies. De entre las especies localizadas en los muestreos, destacan las forestales Plecotus auritus (Linnaeus, 1758) y Barbastella barbastellus (Schreber, 1774); las fisurícolas Pipistrellus pipistrellus (Schreber, 1774) y Eptesicus serotinus (Schreber, 1774) y la cavernícola Myotis esc…

Stabilizing natural selection on the early expression of a secondary sexual trait in a passerine bird

2004

Natural selection is a central tenet of evolutionary theory, yet the estimation of the direction and intensity of selection remains problematic. Here, we assess the strength of selection on the early expression of a secondary sexual ornament, bill colour, in male European blackbirds (Turdus merula) using 5 years of capture-mark-recapture (CMR) data. The best-fitting model consisted of a quadratic relationship between survival rate and bill colour, indicating stabilizing natural selection on the early expression of a secondary sexual trait. There was no evidence for sexual selection acting on bill colour in the first year. We suggest that the consideration of early selection and the adoption…

Male mating success and risk of predation in a wolf spider: a balance between sexual and natural selection?

1998

1.  Traits that benefit males through sexual selection are simultaneously expected to impair males by provoking costs through natural selection. If we consider the two male fitness components, mating success and viability, then we may expect that the increase in male mating success resulting from a larger trait size will be counterbalanced by an increase in viability costs. 2.  We studied the benefits and costs of male mate searching and sexual signalling activity in the wolf spider Hygrolycosa rubrofasciata. In the field, males search females actively and court them by drumming dry leaves with their abdomen. Females have been shown to prefer males with high drumming rate. Male moving and e…

Transcontinental 2200 km migration of a Nathusius’ pipistrelle (Pipistrellus nathusii) across Europe

2020

Abstract A male Pipistrellus nathusii ringed in Pape Natural Park (S Latvia) in August 2015 was recovered recently dead in Pitillas’ Lagoon Natural Reserve (N Spain) in March 2017. At 2224 km in SSW direction, this is the first documented bat migration between these countries and worldwide the longest migration record of a bat. We also report other observations of this species in autumn in Northern Spain, suggesting that the Iberian Peninsula may be an important wintering area for Nathusius’ pipistrelles. Conservation measures should be agreed on by countries along the migration routes to improve the protection of this species.

<p><strong><em>Sinostoma</em> <em>yunnanicum</em>, the first nemastomatine harvestman in China (Arachnida: Opilio…

2016

The easternmost Nemastomatinae species, Sinostoma yunnanicum n. gen., n. sp., from northern Yunnan, China is described. It extends the geographic distribution of Nemastomatinae by roughly 3000 km southeastwards. Within Nemastomatinae Sinostoma displays plesiomorphic characters, including the long, basic bulb of the truncus shaft and the extremely short glans of penis, armed with short robust spines. Sinostoma may represent a relict line in the early evolution of nemastomatine harvestmen.

New national and regional bryophyte records, 43

2015

During the examination of a collection made by the authors in 2009 in San Pedro de Atacama (Antofagasta Region, Chile) one specimen was identified as Bryum incacorralis Herzog, a moss not previously known from Chile (Müller, 2009) and easily confused with some species of Philonotis Brid. (Ochi, 1980). Comparison with the type material confirmed its identity (Holotype: Bolivia, Cochabamba: an Felsen der "Estradillas" bei Incacorral, 3000 m, Herzog s.n., JE! no. 04003475). Bryum incacorralis was first described by Herzog (1909) based on material collected in Cochabamba (Bolivia), and later recorded by Griffin (1977) and O'Shea (2010) from Venezuela. It is placed in the so-called sect. "Alpini…

Castniidae of the Museum of Natural History of the University of Wrocław: new findings from Friedrich Wilhelm Niepelt's collection with comments on K…

2021

Further results of our research into the Giant Butterfly-Moths (Castniidae) of the Museum of Natural History (University of Wrocław) are presented. Castniids of the Niepelt collection had previously been reviewed. However, while curating other sections of the Lepidoptera collection, we discovered 18 misplaced specimens belonging to nine taxa of Castniidae, several of them bearing typical labels by Niepelt. Among them, two are of particular interest, insofar as they are associated with the world-class botanists August Weberbauer (1871–1948) and Karl Adolf Georg Lauterbach (1864–1937).

Deceiving predators: linking distraction behavior with nest survival in a ground-nesting bird

2016

The Function of Stones in Nest Building: The Case of Black Wheatear (Oenanthe Leucura) revisited

2016

Black Wheatears ( Oenanthe leucura) transport to breeding territories, including the nest, a large number of stones. Currently, there is negative evidence that stones serve for nest support, thermoregulation, weather protection or anti-predation, but in males, this behaviour appears to represent a form of post-mating display. This ‘sexual selection’ hypothesis, however, does not explain why females also carry stones, and why many stones are associated with the nest. We examined stone distribution and morphology in 277 abandoned nests of Black Wheatears from an arid area of southeastern Spain. Nests were built on the ground (14.4%), or in cracks (7.2%), cavities (54.6%) and ledges (23.8%) a…

Belnapia mucosa sp. nov. and Belnapia arida sp. nov., isolated from desert biocrust

2021

Two novel Gram-staining-negative, aerobic, cocci-shaped, non-motile, non-spore forming, pink-pigmented bacteria designated strains T6T and T18T, were isolated from a biocrust (biological soil crust) sample from the vicinity of the Tabernas Desert (Spain). Both strains were catalase-positive and oxidase-negative, and grew under mesophilic, neutrophilic and non-halophilic conditions. According to the 16S rRNA gene sequences, strains T6T and T18T showed similarities with Belnapia rosea CGMCC 1.10758T and Belnapia moabensis CP2CT (98.11 and 98.55% gene sequence similarity, respectively). The DNA G+C content was 69.80 and 68.96% for strains T6T and T18T, respectively; the average nucleotide iden…