Search results for "systematic"
showing 10 items of 7608 documents
(3Z,6Z,8E)-3,6,8-dodecatrien-1-ol : Sex pheromone in a higher fungus-growing termite, Pseudacanthotermes spiniger (Isoptera, Macrotermitinae)
1991
International audience; The female sex pheromone of the fungus-growing termitePseudacanthotermes spiniger (Termitidae, Macrotermitinae) was isolated from sternal glands of alates. The compound inducing attraction and excitation in males was identified as the (3Z,6Z,8E)-3,6,8-dodecatrien-1-ol by GC-MS, microhydrogenation, GC-FTIR, and NMR. This unsaturated alcohol is present in both sexes but in much higher quantities in females than in males (about 10 times). The hypothesis is suggested that this alcohol, which is detected at extremely low concentrations by the workers ofP. spiniger, may be used either as a trail-following pheromone or a sex pheromone according to concentrations and to targ…
Arbuscular mycorrhiza and fungal root endophytes of weeds in an altitudinal gradient in the Pamir Alai Mountains of Central Asia
2014
Arbuscular mycorrhiza and fungal root endophytes of three weeds, Galium tricornutum, Lycopsis orientalis and Scandix pecten-veneris, were studied in an altitudinal gradient of the Pamir Alai Mountains. Colonisation by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) was found in all species. Only in the case of G. tricornutum was there a rise in mycorrhizal parameters values found for the medium altitude range. Similar tendencies were observed in the case of the AMF colonisation potential assessment. This suggests that plant species' identity, dependency on symbiosis and interactions with soil properties determine root colonisation and the abundance of AMF in soils at the elevations in question. Four AMF…
Trophic ecology of a Late Pleistocene early modern human from tropical Southeast Asia inferred from zinc isotopes
2021
Tam Pà Ling, a cave site in northeastern Laos, has yielded the earliest skeletal evidence of Homo sapiens in mainland Southeast Asia. The reliance of Pleistocene humans in rainforest settings on plant or animal resources is still largely unstudied, mainly due to poor collagen preservation in fossils from tropical environments precluding stable nitrogen isotope analysis, the classical trophic level proxy. However, isotopic ratios of zinc (Zn) in bioapatite constitute a promising proxy to infer trophic and dietary information from fossil vertebrates, even under adverse tropical taphonomic conditions. Here, we analyzed the zinc isotope composition (66Zn/64Zn expressed as δ66Zn value) in the en…
Parasitism and queen presence interactively shape worker behaviour and fertility in an ant host
2019
Parasites with complex life cycles regularly alter host traits in their own interest. In social hosts, phenotypic alterations induced by parasites can also affect uninfected group members. The tapeworm Anomotaenia brevis uses Temnothorax nylanderi ants as intermediate hosts, reducing host activity and behavioural repertoire, but increasing life span. Uninfected nestmates are less active and less aggressive and suffer from higher mortality. Next to parasites, the social environment, such as the queen, influences worker behaviour, reproduction and longevity. Here, we studied how tapeworm parasitism interacts with the queen to affect the behaviour and reproductive potential of ant workers. We …
Ischaliidae (Insecta: Coleoptera) in the Collection of the Natural History Museum, London
2019
Ischaliidae (Tenebrionoidea) is a small, relatively poorly known family of beetles, with fewer than 50 described species. The Coleoptera collections of the Natural History Museum, London are among the largest and most comprehensive in the world, but the Ischaliidae holding is relatively small (136 specimens, 18 species). However, this collection is of great historical and taxonomic importance, since 12 of the 18 species present are represented by name-bearing types, and five are still only known from the type material and have never been re-collected. We here provide an overview of the collection, and describe and illustrate an additional four species new to science, from Japan, I. (s. str.…
Records and Distribution Corrections on Palaearctic Tenebrionoidea (Coleoptera)
2020
Records and faunistic information are provided for 96 Palaearctic species of tenebrionoid beetles of the families Aderidae, Anthicidae, Melandryidae, Mordellidae, Mycetophagidae, Oedemeridae, Prostomidae, Pyrochroidae, Tenebrionidae and Tetratomidae. The first records of Agnathus decoratus Germar, 1818, Cynaeus angustus (Le Conte, 1851), Mordella huetheri Ermisch, 1956 and Prostomis mandibularis (Fabricius, 1801) for the whole Baltic region of Europe are presented.
Null models for animal social network analysis and data collected via focal sampling: Pre‐network or node network permutation?
2020
In social networks analysis, two different approaches have predominated in creating null models for hypothesis testing, namely pre‐network and node network permutation approaches. Although the pre‐network permutation approach appears more advantageous, its use has mainly been restricted to data on associations and sampling methods such as ‘group follows’. The pre‐network permutation approach has recently been adapted to data on interactions and the focal sampling method, but its performance in different scenarios has not been thoroughly explored. Here, we assessed the performance of the pre‐network and node network permutation approach in several simulated scenarios based on proneness to fa…
Recruitment signals in juvenile cod surveys depend on thermal growth conditions
2017
Coastal seine surveys contain some of the only direct measures of age-0 abundance for Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) and Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus), yet their utility in forecasting future year-class strength has not been evaluated among regions. We analyzed coastal time series from the Gulf of Alaska, Newfoundland, and Norway to test the hypothesis that recruitment signals are stronger when assessed under thermal conditions that provide high juvenile growth potential. Weaker recruitment signals were associated with low growth potential from cold winters (Newfoundland) and recent warmer summers (Norway). We conclude that temperature-dependent growth strongly influences the utility of c…
Low temperature trumps high food availability to determine the distribution of intertidal mussels Perna perna in South Africa
2016
Explanations of species distributions often assume that the absence of a species is due to its inability to tolerate an environmental variable. Recent modelling techniques based on the dynamic energy budget (DEB) theory offer an effective way of identifying how interacting environmental parameters influence distributions through non-lethal effects on growth and development. The mussel Perna perna is an abundant ecosystem engineer around the coasts of Africa, South America and the Arabian peninsula, with an unexplained 1500 km lacuna in its distribution on the west coast of South Africa. We used a DEB approach to explain its distribution in southern Africa and test the hypothesis that this l…
Long-term modelling of weed control strategies: analysis of threshold-based options for weed species with contrasted competitive abilities
2002
A simple life-cycle-based demography model was adapted for two contrasting weed species (Alopecurus myosuroides and Poa annual. This model included a seed production function that accounted for population self-regulation through weed:weed interactions. The A. myosuroides version of the model was tested with field data. Long-term simulations of population demography were then performed to investigate the relationship between weed control strategies based on density thresholds and both the frequency of herbicide use and the long-term economic profitability. This study confirms that threshold-based weed management strategies are more cost-effective than spraying every year and may allow import…