Life Sciences Commons^™

Pollination Of The Crown Imperial Fritillaria Imperialis By Great Tits Parus Major, Winfried S. Peters, Michael Pirl, Gerhard Gottsberger, Dieter Stefan Peters

Winfried S. Peters

Interactions Between Predation Risk And Competition - A Field-Study Of Kangaroo Rats And Snakes, Amos Bouskila

Amos Bouskila

The effects of predation risk from snakes on microhabitat use of kangaroo rats (Dipodomys deserti and D. merriami) was studied in the Mojave Desert. I concentrated on the effects of the predator on the foraging behavior of the rodents and eliminated effects of prey capture on prey population size. Foraging stations contained three seed trays, one in each of three microhabitats (Open, Bush, Grass). The amount of seed left in each tray after one night of foraging was used to assess the responses to predation risk and other foraging costs; additional data were collected during direct observations and by trapping. …

Chivalry In Pholcid Spiders Revisited, Julie A. Blanchong, Michael S. Summerfield, Mary A. Popson, Elizabeth M. Jakob

Julie A. Blanchong

Cohabiting pairs of adult spiders are likely to interact over prey, and the outcome of these interactions is likely to affect the reproductive success of both individuals. In two species of pholcid spiders, previous workers reported the occurrence of "chivalrous" behavior, in which males cede prey to females. We looked for the occurrence of chivalrous behavior in another pholcid spider, Holocnemus pluchei. Pairs of spiders were placed on a web and left overnight without prey. A housefly was then introduced onto the web equidistant from the spiders, and subsequent interactions were noted on audiotape. We found no evidence of chivalry …

Darwinism Evolving: Systems Dynamics And The Genealogy Of Natural Selection, David Depew, Bruce Weber

David J Depew

Darwinism Evolving examines the Darwinian research tradition in evolutionary biology from its inception to its turbulent present, arguing that recent advances in modeling the nonlinear dynamics of complex systems may well catalyze the next major phase of Darwinian evolutionism.While Darwinism has successfully resisted reduction to physics, the authors point out that it has from the outset developed and applied its core explanatory concept, natural selection, by borrowing models from dynamics, a branch of physics. The recent development of complex systems dynamics may afford Darwinism yet another occasion to expand its explanatory power.Darwinism's use of dynamical models has received insufficient attention …

Evolution, Ethics, And The Complexity Revolution, David Depew, Bruce Weber

David J Depew

No abstract provided.