A pathogenic fungus uses volatiles to entice male flies into fatal matings with infected female cadavers

To ensure dispersal, many parasites and pathogens behaviourally manipulate infected hosts. Other pathogens and certain insect-pollinated flowers use sexual mimicry and release deceptive mating signals. However, it is unusual for pathogens to rely on both behavioural host manipulation and sexual mimicry. Here, we show that the host-specific and behaviourally manipulating pathogenic fungus, Entomophthora muscae, generates a chemical blend of volatile sesquiterpenes and alters the level of natural host cuticular hydrocarbons in dead infected female house fly (Musca domestica) cadavers. Healthy male house flies respond to the fungal compounds and are enticed into mating with dead female cadavers. This is advantageous for the fungus as close proximity between host individuals leads to an increased probability of infection. The fungus-emitted volatiles thus represent the evolution of an extended phenotypic trait that exploit male flies' willingness to mate and benefit the fungus by altering the behavioural phenotype of uninfected healthy male host flies.

AKTIVITAS DIURESIS Leucaena leucocephala.L PADA MENCIT JANTAN (Mus musculus)

Diuretics are compounds or drugs that can increase urine volume. This study focused on exploring the activity and concentration of ethanol extract of lamtoro leaves (Leucaenaleucocephala L.) as a diuretic in male house mice (Musmusculus) using experimental research. The method used was to observe the physical activity of urine produced for 120 minutes. Lamtoro leaves extraction was done by maceration using solvent ethanol, then phytochemical screening tests. The screening results stated positively contained alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenoids, and tannins. The animals used were 25 house mice, divided into 5 groups. Group 1 was given Na-CMC 1% w/v suspension, group 2 with furosemide suspension 0.0041% w/v, group 3 with 25% w/v lamtoro leaf ethanol extract, group 4, ethanol extract 50% w/l lamtoro leaf , and group 5 was ethanol extract 75% w/v of lamtoro leaves. Urine volume of the house mice was measured at 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, 90, 105, and 120 minutes.

Primed to vocalize: Wild-derived male house mice increase vocalization rate and diversity after a previous encounter with a female

Males in a wide variety of taxa, including insects, birds and mammals, produce vocalizations to attract females. Male house mice emit ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs), especially during courtship and mating, which are surprising complex. It is often suggested that male mice vocalize at higher rates after interacting with a female, but the evidence is mixed depending upon the strain of mice. We conducted a study with wild-derived house mice (Mus musculus musculus) to test whether male courtship vocalizations (i.e., vocalizations emitted in a sexual context) are influenced by a prior direct interaction with a female, and if so, determine how long the effect lasts. We allowed sexually naïve males to directly interact with a female for five minutes (sexual priming), and then we recorded males’vocalizations either 1, 10, 20, or 30 days later when presented with an unfamiliar female (separated by a perforated partition) and female scent. We automatically detected USVs and processed recordings using the Automatic Mouse Ultrasound Detector (A-MUD version 3.2), and we describe our improved version of this tool and tests of its performance. We measured vocalization rate and spectro-temporal features and we manually classified USVs into 15 types to investigate priming effects on vocal repertoire diversity and composition. After sexual priming, males emitted nearly three times as many USVs, they had a larger repertoire diversity, and their vocalizations had different spectro-temporal features (USV length, slope and variability in USV frequency) compared to unprimed controls. Unprimed control males had the most distinctive repertoire composition compared to the primed groups. Most of the effects were found when comparing unprimed to all primed males (treatment models), irrespective of the time since priming. Timepoint models showed that USV length increased 1 day after priming, that repertoire diversity increased 1 and 20 days after priming, and that the variability of USV frequencies was lower 20 and 30 days after priming. Our results show that wild-derived male mice increased the number and diversity of courtship vocalizations if they previously interacted with a female. Thus, the USVs of house mice are not only context-dependent, they depend upon previous social experience and perhaps the contexts of these experiences. The effect of sexual priming on male courtship vocalizations is likely mediated by neuro-endocrine-mechanisms, which may function to advertise males’ sexual arousal and facilitate social recognition.

The Cistercian Mission in Transylvania

Just before 1200 and just after 1240 two Cistercian abbeys, first a male house at Cârța, not far from Sibiu (Sancta Maria in Kerz), and then a nunnery in Brașov (Sancta Katherina), were established in Transylvania, a borderland of the territories ruled by the Hungarian crown inhabited by Eastern-rite Christians, especially Romanians. Conventionally, often following the model of older historiography on Frankish Greece, modern scholars have understood the arrival of the Cistercian Order in this remote area as an effort at conversion initiated by the papal see. Reassessing older evidence within a new historiographical paradigm and adding newly discovered documentary sources, this paper argues instead that the Cistercian mission in Transylvania was tied to local factors, cultural, social, and economic, and thus the White Monks endured as long as their cooperation with the elite of the German colonists in southern Transylvania remained fruitful. In the light of the evidence, and similar to parallel developments in Frankish Greece, neither ethnic conflict nor a desire to convert non-Latins played a determining role in the historical evolution of the Cistercian presence in Transylvania.

Sex-specific relationships between urbanization, parasitism, and plumage coloration in house finches

Historically, studies of condition-dependent signals in animals have been male-centric, but recent work suggests that female ornaments can also communicate individual quality (e.g., disease state, fecundity). There also has been a surge of interest in how urbanization alters signaling traits, but we know little about if and how cities affect signal expression in female animals. We measured carotenoid-based plumage coloration and coccidian (Isospora spp.) parasite burden in desert and city populations of house finches Haemorhous mexicanus to examine links between urbanization, health state, and feather pigmentation in males and females. In earlier work, we showed that male house finches are less colorful and more parasitized in the city, and we again detected such patterns in this study for males; however, urban females were less colorful, but not more parasitized, than rural females. Moreover, contrary to rural populations, we found that urban birds (regardless of sex) with larger patches of carotenoid coloration were also more heavily infected with coccidia. These results show that urban environments can disrupt condition-dependent color expression and highlight the need for more studies on how cities affect disease and signaling traits in both male and female animals.