Habitat use and phenology of the large insular endemic grasshopperAcrostira euphorbiae(Orthoptera: Pamphagidae)

2007 ◽  
Vol 97 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. López ◽  
M. Nogales ◽  
E. Morales ◽  
P. Oromí

AbstractThe habitat use and the phenology of the large grasshopperAcrostira euphorbiaeGarcía & Oromí endemic to La Palma (Canary Islands) are studied. This grasshopper is entirely dependent on the Canarian endemic shrubEuphorbia lamarckiiboth for food and to avoid predation. Adults stay on subapical branches during the day, probably to reduce the risk of predation, and climb up to the apex at night to feed. While females seem to ensure the genetic diversity of offspring by waiting for visits by different males, the latter have to move to guarantee their reproductive success. Monophagy in this species may be related to the year-round presence of tender shoots, and to the predator-repellent toxic latex found in the host plant. Unlike related species from continental areas, adults and nymphs ofA. euphorbiaeare present almost all year round, probably in adaptation to the particular climate of the islands. Nymphs are more abundant in winter, whenEuphorbialeaves are most available. However, adults are more abundant than nymphs in spring, summer and autumn. Males develop more quickly than females, an apparent reproductive strategy based on achieving sexual maturity to coincide with females undergoing imaginal moulting. Matings start immediately after adult females emerge. Densities oscillated between 73 and 193 individuals ha−1, which can be considered a low value compared with other continental pamphagid species.

1996 ◽  
Vol 74 (10) ◽  
pp. 1922-1933 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Pierre Ouellet ◽  
Jean Ferron ◽  
Luc Sirois

The space and habitat use patterns of the threatened Gaspé caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) were documented using telemetry. Between 1987 and 1992, 701 radiolocations were recorded, primarily for adult females (n = 28). Five habitats available to caribou (hardwood, immature, mature fir, mature spruce, alpine) are described and biomass of arboreal lichen, an important winter food source, is estimated. Regardless of sex and age, almost all locations (91%) were recorded within the limits of Gaspé Provincial Park. Home-range size of adult females averaged 148 km2 (convex polygon); 95% of adult female locations were within 107 km2 and 50% within 15 km2 (harmonic mean). Home-range sizes were small and did not vary seasonally or annually. Throughout the year caribou were located more frequently than expected at high elevations (> 915 m) and less frequently than expected at low elevations (0–685 m). Consequently, alpine habitat was used more frequently than expected. Caribou concentrated their activity in two distinct areas: the alpine plateaus of Mont Albert and Mont Jacques-Cartier. No caribou used both areas (with the exception of a lone female). These two caribou groups should be viewed as two subpopulations. The biomass of arboreal lichens was greatest in mature fir and spruce stands, with 50–60 kg/ha available at a height of 4 m. The altitudinal distribution of this resource may partly explain the strong selection of high-elevation sites made by caribou in winter. Our results also support the hypothesis that cow–calf groups remain at high elevations to reduce the risk of predation by coyotes (Canis latrans) and black bears (Ursus americanus). The proximity of mature forests and alpine habitat, at high elevations, in two areas of the park may explain the small extent of adult female home ranges and the segregation of Gaspé caribou into two groups.


Agronomy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 457 ◽  
Author(s):  
Verónica Pérez ◽  
Nerea Larrañaga ◽  
Donia Abdallah ◽  
Ana Wünsch ◽  
José I. Hormaza

Peach (Prunus persica) is an economically important temperate fruit crop due to its edible fruits. Due to the need to develop new varieties better adapted to climate change, it is of great interest to find germplasm adapted to warmer conditions, such as those found in the Canary Islands. Peach was an important crop during the last century in one of those islands (La Palma), but its cultivation has been abandoned in recent years. Currently, commercial production is relict and isolated trees are relegated to family orchards with little management. With the objective to characterize and prevent the loss of local varieties of this crop, peach trees were sampled along La Palma. A total of 89 local peach accessions were prospected and analyzed with 10 single-sequence repeat (SSR) loci, which permitted 28 different genotype profiles to be detected. These genotypes were compared to 95 Spanish peach landraces conserved in an ex situ collection, and 26 additional samples from eight different countries. Results showed that the peach genetic diversity found in La Palma was low. In addition, a relation between La Palma samples and other Spanish peaches was observed, which could indicate the arrival of genetic material from the Iberian Peninsula and subsequent intercrossing and local selection of the genotypes more adapted to the subtropical climate of the island. The population structure reflects a grouping of the samples based on fruit type and geographic origin.


1964 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. E. Swanson ◽  
J. J. van der Werff ten Bosch

ABSTRACT The »early-androgen« syndrome in the rat – i. e. anovulatory ovaries in adult females after a single injection of testosterone propionate (TP) within a week of birth – may not become apparent until some time after the attainment of sexual maturity. Large doses (50 or 100 μg) of TP were effective earlier than lower doses (5 or 10 μg). Rats which received 5 μg TP were ovulating at 10 weeks of age, mated but were infertile at 13 weeks of age, and were anovulatory at 21 weeks. In rats between 10 and 13 weeks old there was a marked fall in the number of corpora lutea in the ovaries of animals which had been given 5 μg TP. Hemi-spaying was followed by compensatory growth of the remaining ovary which consisted of corpora lutea in ovulating, and of follicles in anovulatory rats; little or no compensatory weight increase occurred in animals which seemed to be in the transition stage from the ovulatory to the anovulatory condition.


Author(s):  
C. Montagnon ◽  
A. Mahyoub ◽  
W. Solano ◽  
F. Sheibani

AbstractWhilst it is established that almost all cultivated coffee (Coffea arabica L.) varieties originated in Yemen after some coffee seeds were introduced into Yemen from neighboring Ethiopia, the actual coffee genetic diversity in Yemen and its significance to the coffee world had never been explored. We observed five genetic clusters. The first cluster, which we named the Ethiopian-Only (EO) cluster, was made up exclusively of the Ethiopian accessions. This cluster was clearly separated from the Yemen and cultivated varieties clusters, hence confirming the genetic distance between wild Ethiopian accessions and coffee cultivated varieties around the world. The second cluster, which we named the SL-17 cluster, was a small cluster of cultivated worldwide varieties and included no Yemen samples. Two other clusters were made up of worldwide varieties and Yemen samples. We named these the Yemen Typica-Bourbon cluster and the Yemen SL-34 cluster. Finally, we observed one cluster that was unique to Yemen and was not related to any known cultivated varieties and not even to any known Ethiopian accession: we name this cluster the New-Yemen cluster. We discuss the consequences of these findings and their potential to pave the way for further comprehensive genetic improvement projects for the identification of major resilience/adaptation and cup quality genes that have been shaped through the domestication process of C. arabica.


Author(s):  
E. W. Knight-Jones ◽  
Phyllis Knight-Jones

The faunas of volcanic islands must necessarily be introduced, and more recent introductions can be recognized by the patterns of their distributions. This is obvious in the Canary Islands, where we have spent 30 days studying distributions of Spirorbidae. We now regard these as a distinct family following Pillai (1970). We sampled all the major islands, by shore collecting and diving to about 10 m, and on almost all we found nine Mediterranean species, namely Protolaeospira striata (Quiévreux, 1963) and the eight opercular incubators (species of Pileolaria and Janua) that have been recorded from both Marseilles (Zibrowius, 1968) and Chios (Bailey, 1969).


1993 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 469-474 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa M. Hiruki ◽  
Ian Stirling ◽  
William G. Gilmartin ◽  
Thea C. Johanos ◽  
Brenda L. Becker

We studied reproductive rate, length of lactation period, pup survival, and mortality of injured and uninjured female Hawaiian monk seals (Monachus schauinslandi) on Laysan Island, northwestern Hawaiian Islands, in 1983 – 1989. The severity and timing of nonfatal injuries were influential in determining their effect on female reproductive success. There was a tendency towards a shorter mean lactation period and lower survival rate of pups for females with major injuries than for uninjured females. Females with minor injuries were similar to uninjured females in terms of reproductive rate, length of lactation, and pup survival. For females injured shortly before the birth of their pup or during lactation, pup survival was lower than for uninjured females, whereas for females injured during the year prior to pupping, measures of reproductive success were not significantly different from those for uninjured females. Immature (aged 4 – 8 years) females entering the reproductive population were injured by adult male seals significantly more often than females aged 0 – 3 years, but at a similar rate to adult females. The major effect of injuries on female reproductive success is an increase in female mortality: 87.5 % of the adult females (n = 16) that died on Laysan Island in 1983 – 1989 sustained injuries from adult male seals.


2000 ◽  
Vol 1 (9) ◽  
pp. n/a-n/a ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Tauxe ◽  
Hubert Staudigel ◽  
Jan R. Wijbrans
Keyword(s):  

2011 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 230-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.R. Arévalo ◽  
L. de Nascimento ◽  
S. Fernández-Lugo ◽  
J. Mata ◽  
L. Bermejo

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