Morphological variables restrict flower choice of Lycaenid butterfly species: implication for pollination and conservation

Background Butterflies make an important part for plant-pollinator guild. These are nectar feeder or occasionally pollen feeder and thus proboscis of the butterfly species are considered as one of the most important variable in relation to the collection of food from plants. In butterfly-plant association, nectar source is principally determined by quality of nectar, corolla length, and nectar quantity. For the butterfly, nectar uptake is determined by proboscis length because flowers with long corolla restrict butterfly species containing shorter proboscis. Empirical studies proved that butterfly species with high wing loading visit clustered flowers and species with low wing loading confined their visit to solitary or less nectar rich flowers. The present study tries to investigate the flower preference of butterfly species from Lycaenidae family having very short proboscis, lower body length, lower body weight and wing span than the most species belonging from Nymphalidae, Pieridae, Papilionidae, and Hesperiidae. Results Butterflies with shorter proboscis cannot access nectar from deeper flower. Although they mainly visit on less deeper flower to sucking nectar, butterflies with high wing loading visits clustered flowers to fulfill their energy requirements. In this study, we demonstrated flower choice of seven butterfly species belonging to Lycanidiae family. The proboscis length maintains a positive relationship with body length and body weight. Body length maintains a positive relationship with body weight and wing span. Wing span indicate a strong positive relationship with body weight. This study proved that these seven butterfly species namely Castalius rosimon (CRN), Taracus nara (TNA), Zizinia otis (ZOT), Zizula hylax (ZHY), Jamides celeno (JCE), Chilades laius (CLA), and Psuedozizeeria maha (PMA) visit frequently in Tridax procumbens (TPR), Ocimum americanum (OAM) and Syndrella nodiflora (SNO). The species do not visit Lantana camara (LCA) and Catharanthus roseus (CRO) plants. Conclusion The present study proved that butterfly species visits frequently in Tridax procumbens (TPR), Ocimum americanum (OAM) but less frequently in Syndrella nodiflora (SNO). So, that study determined the butterfly species helps in pollination of these herbs that in turn helps the conservation of these butterfly species.

Disparities in the body, chest, and wing morphometric among three subspecies of local male chickens for genetic breeding

Local chickens in developing countries, including Indonesia, have great potential to be developed into natural superior breeds to support food security and improve farmer welfare. Meanwhile, the major endemic subspecies found in the Bengkulu province are burgo and kampung chicken, as well as ketarras which are recently bred intensively. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the disparities in the morphometrics of three subspecies of local male chickens specifically on the body weight, length, chest girth and length, as well as wing span. Based on the results, the male burgo chicken morphometrical size was significantly smaller than ketarras, while the ketarras chicken was significantly smaller than kampung (P < 0.05). Furthermore, the average body weights for the burgo, ketarras and kampung chicken were 1.0, 1.2 and 1.9 kg cock-1, respectively, while the average of body length, chest and chest length, as well as wing span were 29.9, 40.0, 47.7 cm cock-1; 26.2, 30.1, 36.3 cm cock-1; 12.6, 17.8, 20.3 cm cock-1, and 34.4, 41.9, 55.9 cm cock-1, respectively. Therefore, it was concluded that the burgo and kampung chicken have the smallest and biggest morphometric sizes respectively.

Sexual dimorphism and phenotypic correlations among growth traits of exotic turkey (Meleagris gallopavo)

This study was conducted to determine sexual dimorphism and phenotypic correlations among growth traits of six month old exotic turkeys raised at the Turkey Unit, Teaching and Research Farm of Ondo State University of Science and Technology, Okitipupa. Bodyweight, shank length, thigh length, body length, wing length, wing span and breast girth for Meleagris gallopavo (female and male) were measured using standard methods. Data collected on 102 exotic turkeys comprised of 61 female and 41 male were subjected to analysis of variance and Pearson's correlation. Bodyweight, shank length, thigh length, body length, wing length, wing span and breast girth for females were 8.16 kg, 8.31 cm, 22.29 cm, 68.47 cm, 32.93 cm, 73.65 cm and 57.24 cm respectively, while the corresponding values for males were 8.84 kg, 9.97 cm, 23.40 cm, 76.27 cm, 35.87 cm, 80.27 cm and 60.20 cm. The effect of sex on the variables was significant (p<0.05) except on bodyweight and thigh length. The bodyweight and thigh length were numerically higher in males (8.84 and 23.40) and lower values observed in females (8.16 and 22.29). The correlation coefficients were all positive for both sexes except in females where the correlation between bodyweight and shank length was negative (-0.031). Among the males the correlation coefficients ranged between 0.447 and 0.859 while in the females it ranged between -0.031 and 0.539. Sexual dimorphism was displayed virtually in all the variables considered and in a similar trend bodyweight could be predicted virtually by all the linear body measurements considered.

Sexual differentiation and phenotypic correlations among biometric traits of Nigerian local turkey (Meleagris gallopavo)

One- hundred and twenty-four (124) Nigerian local turkeys at six months of age were used for this study. The turkeys were raised from day old in a commercial farm located at Ibadan and data were collected on growth traits to determine the effect of sex and phenotypic correlations among growth traits. Highest coefficient of variation was observed in body weight in both male (9.95 %) and female (15.74 %) while the least (5.71%) was observed for wing span in female and 4.95% for body length in male. Sex had significant effect (p<0.05) on all the variables in favour of male. The body weight, shank length, thigh length, body length, wing length, wing span and breast girth for males were 3.80 kg, 9.01 cm, 21.68 cm, 63.00 cm, 32.44 cm, 72.86 cm and 40.17 cm, respectively, while the corresponding values for female were 2.93 kg, 7.27 cm, 17.96 cm, 55.37 cm, 28.18 cm, 63.92 cm and 36.14 cm. The correlation coefficients between body weight and the linear measurements in the two sexes were positive and mostly significant in male. It ranged between 0.291 and 0.561 in male and 0.233 and 0.721 in female. Sexual dimorphism was obvious in all the traits considered in favour of male. The positive correlations between body weight and the linear body measurements in the two sexes means improvement in any of the traits will lead to improvement in the body weight.

Inter-species variation in number of bristles on forewings of tiny insects does not impact clap-and-fling aerodynamics

ABSTRACTFlight-capable miniature insects of body length (BL) < 2 mm typically possess wings with long bristles on the fringes. Though their flight is challenged by needing to overcome significant viscous resistance at chord-based Reynolds number (Rec) on the order of 10, these insects use clap-and-fling mechanism coupled with bristled wings for lift augmentation and drag reduction. However, inter-species variation in the number of bristles (n) and inter-bristle gap (G) to bristle diameter (D) ratio (G/D) and their effects on clap-and-fling aerodynamics remain unknown. Forewing image analyses of 16 species of thrips and 21 species of fairyflies showed that n and maximum wing span were both positively correlated with BL. We conducted aerodynamic force measurements and flow visualization on simplified physical models of bristled wing pairs that were prescribed to execute clap-and-fling kinematics at Rec=10 using a dynamically scaled robotic platform. 23 bristled wing pairs were tested to examine the isolated effects of changing dimensional (G, D, span) and non-dimensional (n, G/D) geometric variables on dimensionless lift and drag. Within biologically observed ranges of n and G/D, we found that: (a) increasing G provided more drag reduction than decreasing D; (b) changing n had minimal impact on lift generation; and (c) varying G/D produced minimal changes in aerodynamic forces. Taken together with the broad variation in n (32-161) across the species considered here, the lack of impact of changing n on lift generation suggests that tiny insects may experience reduced biological pressure to functionally optimize n for a given wing span.SUMMARY STATEMENTIntegrating morphological analysis of bristled wings seen in miniature insects with physical model experiments, we find that aerodynamic forces are unaffected across the broad biological variation in number of bristles.

Korelasi fenotip antara ukuran bagian tubuh dengan bobot badan dari silangan ayam pedaging, kate dan lokal sabu pada umur dua belas minggu

ABSTRACT The purpose of this research was to know the relationship between the the weight and body measurements at age of 12 weeks of crossbreds of three chicken types that were broiler, kate and Sabu chicken. The relationship of body weight with the body measurements was used as a consideration for selecting the body weight. The research material was 30 tails of crossbreds with genotype composition was ½ broiler 1/4 Kate ¼ Sabu chicken. The method of research was experiment and directly weighting and measuring of the body measuremens. All chickens were given freely the same food and waters. The observed parameters were body weight, backbone length, chest circumference, shank circumference and wing span. Data was analised using the correlation analysis. Research results obtained the koefisien of correlation between chest circumference, backbone length, shank length and wing span with body weight were 0.62; 0.32; 031 and 0.20. Correlations between body weight and body measurements of chicken crossbreds with genotype composision ½ broiler ¼ Kate ¼ Sabu were positip.

Multifunctional discriminant analysis of morphostructural traits in Nigerian locally adapted turkeys

Association among biometric traits and characterisation based on sexed-plumage colour of Nigerian locally adapted turkey were investigated using discriminant analysis. Eight morphometric traits were measured to study their phenotypic variations between two plumage colours (Lavender and White). The characters measured were body weight (BW) as well as body dimensions such as wing length (WL), wing span (WS), body length (BL), breast girth (BG), shank length (SL), thigh length (TL) and keel length (KL) taken at 12 weeks of age. The White male turkey was significantly (P < 0.05) heavier and had longer morphometric body traits than its female counterpart, but when compared with the Lavender male and female genotype, the traits did not differ significantly (P > 0.05). High positive and significant (P < 0.05) correlation coefficients were recorded among the various body traits. Coefficients of correlation in Lavender turkey ranged from 0.73 – 0.94, and 0.84 – 0.96 in the White turkey. The highest association with body weight in Lavender was body length (r = 0.80, P < 0.05), and the trio of BW, TL and KL had the stronger association for the White turkey (r = 0.91, P < 0.05). The first, second and third canonical variable or Fisher linear discriminant function explained 52.13 %, 37.48 % and 10.39 %, respectively, of the total variation. The distances between all pair wise were significant (P < 0.05). The greatest distance value (415.16) was between the White male and female turkeys, closely followed by the male White and female Lavender turkey (303.58), while the least distance was between the male and female Lavender. The distance between the populations was significant. It can be concluded that thigh length, breast girth, wing length, wing span and body length can serve as the most discriminating variables in distinguishing between White and Lavender populations.

“Design and Fabrication of Micro Air Vehicle (Mav) with Double-Bubble Fuselage”

A micro air vehicle (MAV) is a class of aircraft that has size restriction. The purpose of this project is to design a MAV, the airplane designed will be an RC (Radio Controlled) which can carry highest payload fraction possible with lowest empty weight, based on the guidelines of flight mechanics, aircraft structures, aerodynamics and control systems. This project aims to fabricate the designed MAV emphazing on all the structural aspects and other constraints respectively and to demonstrate its mission profile. The MAV has a double-bubble fuselage configuration with a rectangular high wing having a conventional tail configuration. The lateral cross-section of the wing is a cambered airfoil whose profile governs the lift distribution over the wing span. The wing span is around 4.8 feet and the model is fabricated using balsawood in this project.