Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons^™

Book Review Of "Natural Climate Variability And Global Warming: A Holocene Perspective" Edited By Richard W. Battarbee And Heather A. Binney, Shaily Menon

Shaily Menon

No abstract provided.

A New Species Of Pristimantis (Anura: Strabomantidae) From The Amazonian Lowlands Of Northern Peru, Edgar Lehr, Luis A.G. Gagliardi Urrutia, Jiri Moravec

Edgar Lehr

A Hypogean New Species Of Trechus Clairville, 1806 (Coleoptera, Carabidae) From Portugal And Considerations About The T. Fulvus Species Group, Ana Reboleira, Vicente Ortuño, Fernando Gonçalves, Pedro Oromí

Ana Sofia P.S. Reboleira

A new hypogean ground beetle species, Trechus tatai n. sp. from the Montejunto karstic massif in Portugal is described. Morphological diagnostic characters of the imago are provided and the new species is included in the Trechus fulvus-group. Comments on the biogeography of hypogean carabid beetles in karstic areas of Portugal and an illustrated key to the males of the T. fulvus-group in the Iberian Peninsula are also included.

Left-Sided Directional Bias Of Cloacal Contacts During House Sparrow Copulations, Karen Nyland, Michael Lombardo, Patrick Thorpe

Michael P Lombardo

Most female birds have only a left ovary and associated oviduct. The entry to the oviduct is on the left side of the urodeum of the cloaca. This arrangement may favor males that mount females from the left during copulation if it results in sperm being placed closer to the opening of the oviduct. Therefore, we predicted a left-sided directional bias of cloacal contacts during House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) copulations. Cloacal contacts from the left outnumbered those from the right 74 to 25 (3:1) during 25 bouts of copulation at 11 House Sparrow nests. While this pattern suggests that a …

Access To Mutualistic Endosymbiotic Microbes: An Underappreciated Benefit Of Group Living, Michael Lombardo

Michael P Lombardo

"The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com"

A central question in behavioral ecology has been why animals live in groups. Previous theories about the evolution of sociality focused on the potential benefits of decreased risk of predation, increased foraging or feeding efficiency, and mutual aid in defending resources and/or rearing offspring. This paper argues that access to mutualistic endosymbiotic microbes is an underappreciated benefit of group living and sets out to reinvigorate Troyer’s hypothesis that the need to obtain cellulolytic microbes from conspecifics influenced the evolution of social behavior in herbivores and to extend it to nonherbivores. This extension is …

Within-Pair Copulations: Are Female Tree Swallows Feathering Their Own Nests?, Michael Lombardo

Michael P Lombardo

A variety of hypotheses has been proposed to explain why socially monogamous birds copulate repeatedly with their mates when only a single copulation is necessary to fertilize an entire clutch (Birkhead and Møller 1992, Petrie 1992, Hunter et al. 1993). Petrie (1992) hypothesized that a female should copulate frequently with her mate so as to reduce her mate’s involvement in extrapair copulations. By reducing her mate’s involvement in extrapair copulations, a female may: (1) avoid the transmission of parasites and sexually transmitted diseases (Hamilton 1990); (2) may avoid sperm depletion by her mate; and (3) may monopolize her mate’s paternal …

On The Evolution Of Sexually Transmitted Diseases In Birds, Michael Lombardo

Michael P Lombardo

"The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com".

Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in animals are caused by pathogens that are transmitted during copulation. Birds have played an important role in the development of STD-centered theories of mating behavior. However, it is not known whether STDs exist in wild bird populations. While the avian cloaca with its dual functions of gamete transfer and excretion seemingly predisposes birds for the evolution of STDs, the life history patterns of most birds (i.e., seasonal breeders with relatively brief annual periods of sexual activity) suggest otherwise. The importance of STDs as selective forces that shape host …

Left-Sided Directional Bias Of Cloacal Contacts During Tree Swallow Copulations, Aaron Petersen, Michael Lombardo, Harry Power

Michael P Lombardo

Most female birds have only a left ovary and associated oviduct with entry to the oviduct on the left side of the urodeum of the cloaca. We hypothesized that male cloacal contacts during copulation would occur from the left side of females because this would put sperm closer to the entrance of the oviduct. We observed that cloacal contacts from the left outnumbered those from the right by a margin of 3:1 during tree swallow, Tachycineta bicolor, copulations at nestboxes in western Michigan in 1999. The directional bias of cloacal contacts may have an adaptive function.

Basking Behavior Of Emydid Turtles (Chysemys Picta Marginata, Graptemys Geographica, And Trachemys Scripta Elegans) In An Urban Landscape, W. Peterman, Travis Ryan

Travis J. Ryan

Basking is common in emydid turtles and is generally accepted to be in thermoregulatory behavior. In 2004, we quantified and described the basking behavior of turtles in the Central Canal of Indianapolis. This canal system runs through an urban landscape that is dominated by fragmented woodlots, residential areas. and commercial areas. We observed that basking turtles exhibited variable basking behavior. with spatial and temporal shins in basking behavior from east-facing banks in the morning to west-facing banks in the afternoon. Turtles in the Central Canal are subject to frequent disturbance, which altered basking behavior. Many turtles forewent aerial basking on …

Does Niche Divergence Accompany Allopatric Divergence In Aphelocoma Jays As Predicted Under Ecological Speciation?: Insights From Tests With Niche Models, John Mccormack, Amanda Zellmer, L. Knowles

John E. McCormack

The role of ecology in the origin of species has been the subject of long-standing interest to evolutionary biologists. New sources of spatially explicit ecological data allow for large-scale tests of whether speciation is associated with niche divergence or whether closely related species tend to be similar ecologically (niche conservatism). Because of the confounding effects of spatial autocorrelation of environmental variables, we generate null expectations for niche divergence for both an ecological-niche modeling and a multivariate approach to address the question: do allopatrically distributed taxa occupy similar niches? In a classic system for the study of niche evolution—the Aphelocoma jays—we …

Legume Phylogeny And The Evolution Of A Unique Contractile Apparatus That Regulates Phloem Transport, Winfried Peters, Claudia Hanakam, Dietmar Haffer, Aart Van Bel, Michael Knoblauch

Winfried S. Peters

Sexual Size Dimorphism (Ssd) Is The Most Consistent Explanation For The Body Size Spectrum Of Confuciusornis Sanctus, Winfried S. Peters, Dieter Stefan Peters

Winfried S. Peters

Preliminary Global Assessment Of Terrestrial Biodiversity Consequences Of Sea-Level Rise Mediated By Climate Change, Shaily Menon, Jorge Soberon, Xingong Li, A. Townsend Peterson

Shaily Menon

Considerable attention has focused on the climatic effects of global climate change on biodiversity, but few analyses and no broad assessments have evaluated effects of sea-level rise on biodiversity. Taking advantage of new maps of marine intrusion under scenarios of 1 and 6 m sea-level rise, we calculated areal losses for all terrestrial ecoregions globally, with areal losses for particular ecoregions ranging from nil to complete. Marine intrusion is a global phenomenon, but its effects are most prominent in Southeast Asia and nearby islands, eastern North America, northeastern South America, and western Alaska. Making assumptions regarding faunal responses to reduced …

Early Cranial Patterning In The Direct-Developing Frog Eleutherodactylus Coqui Revealed Through Gene Expression, Ryan Kerney, Joshua Gross, James Hanken

Ryan Kerney

Genetic and developmental alterations associated with the evolution of amphibian direct development remain largely unexplored. Specifically, little is known of the underlying expression of skeletal regulatory genes, which may reveal early modifications to cranial ontogeny in direct-developing species. We describe expression patterns of three key skeletal regulators (runx2, sox9, and bmp4) along with the cartilage-dominant collagen 2a1 gene (col2a1) during cranial development in the direct- developing anuran, Eleutherodactylus coqui. Expression patterns of these regulators reveal transient skeletogenic anlagen that correspond to larval cartilages, but which never fully form in E. coqui. Suprarostral anlagen in the frontonasal processes are detected through …

Small-Scale Divergence In Egg Color Along An Elevation Gradient In The Mexican Jay (Aphelocoma Ultramarina): A Condition-Dependent Response?, John Mccormack, Elena Berg

John E. McCormack

The functional significance of bird egg color and patterning is a continuing subject of interest and debate. Extreme polymorphism in eggshell appearance is often thought to be maintained by frequency-dependent selection operating within populations. However, variation could also be explained by small-scale differentiation combined with limited migration. Here, we report the existence of extreme variation in egg color in a population of Mexican Jays (Aphelocoma ultramarina) inhabiting a steep elevation and habitat gradient within a single mountain range, the Sierra del Carmen of Coahuila, Mexico. We quantified egg color of 143 eggs from 54 nests throughout the mountain range, using …

Biological Stoichiometry Of Plant Production: Metabolism, Scaling, And Ecological Response To Global Change, Andrew Kerkhoff, J.J. Elser, W.F. Fagan, B.J. Enquist

Andrew J Kerkhoff

No abstract provided.

Darwinian Controversies: An Historiographical Recounting, David Depew

David J Depew

This essay reviews key controversies in the history of the Darwinian research tradition: the Wilberforce-Huxley debate in 1860, early twentieth-century debates about the heritability of acquired characteristics and the consistency of Mendelian genetics with natural selection; the 1925 Scopes trial about teaching evolution; tensions about race, culture, and eugenics at the 1959 centenary celebration Darwin’s Origin of Species; adaptationism and its critics in the Sociobiology debate of 1970s and, more recently, Evolutionary Psychology; and current disputes about Intelligent Design. These controversies, I argue, are etched into public memory because they occur at the emotionally charged boundaries between public-political, technical-scientific, and …

Differential Consumption Of Four Aphid Species By Four Lady Beetle Species, Christy Finlayson, Andrei Alyokhin, Serena Gross, Erin Porter

Andrei Alyokhin

The acceptability of four different aphid species Macrosiphum albifrons (Essig), Macrosiphum euphorbiae (Thomas), Macrosiphum pseudorosae Patch, and Myzus persicae (Sulzer) (Hemiptera: Aphididae), as prey for four lady beetle species, one native species Coccinella trifasciata L, and three non-native Coccinella septempunctata L, Harmonia axyridis Pallas, Propylea quatuordecimpunctata L (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) were tested in the laboratory. The relative field abundance of adults of the same lady beetle species on host vegetation, Lupinus polyphyllus Lindley (Fabales: Fabaceae), Solanum tuberosum L (Solanales: Solanaceae), and Rosa multiflora Thunberg (Rosales: Rosaceae), both with and without aphids present was also observed. In the laboratory, H. axyridis generally …