莲花山云南柳莺的孵卵行为

20 0 2年 6～ 7月 ,在甘肃省莲花山自然保护区对云南柳莺的孵卵行为进行了研究。结果表明 ,雌鸟孵卵的日活动期为 (80 0 5± 42 8)min (n =1 5 ) ,每天离巢 (3 2 7± 3 9)次 (n =1 5 ) ,每次离巢时间 (6 6±1 8)min (n =5 99) ,每次坐巢时间 (1 8 4± 9 2 )min (n =5 83 ) ,坐巢率为 (73 1± 1 9) %。雌鸟每次坐巢时间和离巢时间的长度均与气温显著相关。日活动期雌鸟在巢的平均卵温为 3 2 3℃ ,夜晚的平均卵温为3 2 7℃。整个孵卵期卵温在发育临界值 2 8℃以上的时间比例为 92 7%。在孵卵后期卵温有逐渐上升的趋势。     

四川雉鹑繁殖习性初报

2005～2008年,在四川省雅江县对四川雉鹑(Tetraophasis szechenyii)的繁殖习性,包括巢、卵、孵卵时间、生长量度和日行为节律进行了初步观察.四川雉鹑同时营树上巢和地面巢,以树上巢为主,占68%(n=25);产卵期集中在4月,正常窝卵数2～5枚(n=9),窝卵孵化率为63.89%(n=12);雌鸟在孵卵期每天离巢1次,离巢平均时间(63.0±22.6)min(n=18),孵卵期24～29 d(n=4);150日龄幼鸟的体重接近成体.在繁殖期,四川雉鹑6:30～7:00时从夜栖树上飞下,行至觅食地觅食,17:00时左右返回夜栖地,19:00～19:30时上树夜栖.     

灰蓝姬鹟的孵卵节律

2 0 0 2年在莲花山自然保护区使用温度自动记录装置对灰蓝姬的孵卵节律进行了研究。研究表明 ,灰蓝姬雌鸟日平均离巢 31.2 5± 7.5 0次 (n =8天 ) ,平均每次离巢持续时间为 7± 2min (n =2 6 4 ) ,平均在巢持续时间 2 1± 9min (n =2 5 6 )。雌鸟在巢率与环境温度间存在显著的负相关关系 (Spearman相关 ,r =- 0 .30 4 ,P <0 .0 1)。进一步的分析表明 ,灰蓝姬雌鸟每次离巢持续时间与环境温度呈显著的正相关 (Spearman相关 ,r =0 .2 6 1,P <0 .0 1) ,每次在巢时间和离巢次数均与环境温度无关 (在巢时间 ,r =0 .0 2 6 ,P =0 .6 82 ;离巢次数 ,r =0 .0 14 ,P =0 .879)。认为灰蓝姬雌鸟主要通过调节离巢时间的长短来控制孵卵节律     

四川瓦屋山金色林鸲的繁殖生态及孵卵节律

20 0 3年 4～ 7月 ,在四川省瓦屋山自然保护区对金色林鸲 (Tarsigerchrysaeus)的繁殖生态和孵卵节律进行了较为深入的研究。金色林鸲营巢期从 4月下旬～ 6月中旬 ,孵卵期一般为 1 6～ 1 7d,育雏期为1 6d。窝卵数一般为 3～ 4枚 ,平均为 (3 . 75± 0. 45 )枚 (n =1 2 ) ,孵化率为 60 0 % ,育雏成功率为 85 2 %。仅雌鸟孵卵 ,根据对 3巢的监测 ,发现雌鸟早晨 6:0 0时左右首次离巢 ,晚上 2 0 :0 0时左右回到巢中 ,每天出巢次数 1 8～ 1 9次。孵卵雌鸟每次出巢时间一般少于 2 0min ,异常离巢时最长达到 65 6min。雌鸟出巢时间的长度和环境温度呈明显的正相关 (Spearman,r=0 . 1 1 8,P =0 . 0 0 7,n =5 3 1 )。金色林鸲雄鸟存在羽毛延迟成熟现象 ,亚成体雄鸟可以繁殖。     

甘肃莲花山暗绿柳莺的孵卵行为

2001年5～7月,在甘肃省莲花山自然保护区对暗绿柳莺Phylloscopus trochiloides的孵卵行为进行了初步研究.结果 表明,孵化期内雌鸟日活动期长度平均为(848.5±14.8) min (n=17),每天离巢(16.0±3.0)次(n=15),每次离巢时间为(12.3±5.0) min (n=251),每次在巢时间为(43.6±21.9) min (n=236),在巢率为(78.8±2.4)%.雌鸟在巢时卵温平均为(31.3±3.5)℃ (n=10646),离巢时卵温平均为(26.6±4.8)℃ (n=2876);夜晚的平均卵温为(30.6±3.5)℃ (n=9239).孵卵温度在孵卵期有逐渐上升的趋势.     

甘肃莲花山淡眉柳莺的繁殖记录及其孵卵行为

2001年6～7月,在甘肃省莲花山自然保护区记录了淡眉柳莺(Phylloscopus humei)繁殖,研究了其孵卵行为。结果表明,窝卵数为(4.3±0.5)枚(4～5,n=4),卵的大小为(14.0±0.4)mm×(11.2±0.4)mm(n=17)。育雏期为(13.8±0.5)d(13～14,n=4)。孵化期内雌鸟日活动期的平均长度为(833.2±40.0)min,平均每天离巢(46.6±12.2)次(n=27),每次离巢时间为(5.3±2.8)min(n=1435),每次在巢时间为(12.7±7.5)min(n=1409),在巢率为72.4%±11.6%(n=21)。雨天在巢和离巢的时间与晴天有显著差异,晴天在巢率为71.5%±12.1%(n=13),雨天在巢率为75.1%±9.0%(n=8)。在整个孵卵期间所有记录到的卵温平均为31.2℃(49066min内连续记录58879次)。雌鸟每次离巢,卵温平均下降(9.4±3.4)℃(n=1450)。     

河南董寨赤腹鹰孵卵节律与巢防卫行为

2016和2017年的5月至8月,在河南省董寨国家级自然保护区利用红外相机监控和野外直接观察赤腹鹰(Accipiter soloensis),对其孵卵节律和巢防卫行为进行了研究。为了更好地获得巢防卫数据,我们以人作为入侵者攀爬巢树,观察人停留在巢树上10 min内不同赤腹鹰个体的巢防卫行为。共发现赤腹鹰繁殖巢52个,累计拍摄红外照片661 306张,将15个繁殖巢内的30只个体的巢防卫行为分成了4个等级。研究表明:1)雄鸟的巢防卫等级与雄鸟的日孵卵次数(r=0.751,n=15,P0.01)、雄鸟日孵卵时间(r=0.803,n=15,P0.01)、每日雌雄孵卵总时间(r=0.527,n=15,P0.05)均呈显著正相关,雌鸟的巢防卫等级与雄鸟的日孵卵次数(r=0.717,n=15,P0.01)、雄鸟的日孵卵时间(r=0.619,n=15,P0.05)呈显著正相关(Sperman rank correlation);2)雌鸟巢防卫强度与雄鸟巢防卫强度呈显著正相关(r=0.743,n=15,P0.01);3)亲鸟的平均离巢时间与雄鸟的日孵卵次数(r=﹣0.680,df=11,P0.05)、雄鸟的日孵卵时间(r=﹣0.640,df=11,P0.05)、雌鸟的孵卵次数(r=﹣0.558,df=11,P0.05)、每日雌雄孵卵总时间(r=﹣0.772,df=11,P0.01)均呈负相关。可见,赤腹鹰的巢防卫强度和孵卵投入密切相关,并且配偶间的巢防卫行为存在相似性,可能与配偶选择和学习行为有关。     

甘肃莲花山宝兴歌鸫的繁殖记录

2003年5～7月,在甘肃省莲花山自然保护区对中国特产鸟类宝兴歌鸫的繁殖,包括孵卵节律及育雏行为进行了观察。宝兴歌鸫在孵卵期平均每天出巢13．6次(n=7),出巢时间平均为12．0min(n=93),日活动期平均为855．5min(n=7)。亲鸟出巢时间的长度和环境温度呈明显的正相关(r=0．35,P=0．002,n=77)。宝兴歌鸫雌雄共同育雏,两只雏鸟的喂食频次分别为1．33次／h和0．98次／h。     

桂西南褐翅鸦鹃的孵卵行为与节律

2016年3~6月,在广西西南部龙州县弄岗村(22°26′35.20′′~22°30′46.90′′N,106°57′46.35′′~107°03′32.99′′E),通过野外观察和自动温度记录仪相结合的方法对褐翅鸦鹃(Centropus sinensis)的孵卵行为与节律进行了研究。结果表明,1)褐翅鸦鹃边筑巢边产卵,每2 d产1枚卵,卵长径和短径分别为(36.11±0.42)mm和(28.46±0.38)mm,卵重(16.35±0.51)g(n=44枚)。窝卵数3~5枚,孵卵期为(16.75±1.65)d(n=4巢),孵化率为45.45%(n=44枚)。孵卵期与窝卵数之间无显著相关性(r=0.865,P0.05);2)白天双亲共同参与孵卵,夜晚则由其中1只负责。夜间亲鸟的在巢时间从19时左右持续至翌日晨6时左右;3)亲鸟采取离巢次数少和离巢时间长的孵卵策略。亲鸟日活动时间在700 min以上(n=45 d),日离巢次数为(8.82±0.34)次(n=45 d),平均每次离巢持续时间为(52.91±2.35)min(n=397次),每次离巢持续时间与环境温度呈显著负相关关系(r=﹣0.113,P0.05);4)巢内平均孵卵温度为(31.7±0.3)℃(n=4巢),随孵卵天数增加而增加,并与环境温度(最高温r=0.566,最低温r=0.537,平均温r=0.706,P0.01)和日活动时间正相关(r=0.506,P0.01);5)有延迟孵卵行为。延迟孵卵期间夜晚巢内最低温是22.1℃。在桂西南北热带气候环境中,高的环境温度是保障褐翅鸦鹃孵卵成功的主要因素之一。     

灰蓝姬鹟暂时弃卵的低温耐受性

鸟类的亲鸟有时会暂时放弃孵卵的义务,使正在发育的胚胎连续数小时甚至几天处于较低的环境温度条件下。在甘肃莲花山自然保护区采用温度数据自动记录仪对一只灰蓝姬鹟(Ficedulatricolor)雌鸟的孵卵节律进行了监测,记录到雌鸟3次长时间的异常离巢,离巢时间分别为4·45h、1·17h和5·32h。雌鸟离巢期间,巢温最低降至7·7℃,并且在2次较长时间的异常离巢时,巢温低于10℃的时间分别达到了3·83h和4·60h。此后,雌鸟恢复了正常孵卵直至雏鸟出壳。     

Causality, randomness, intelligibility, and the epistemology of the cell

Because the basic unit of biology is the cell, biological knowledge is rooted in the epistemology of the cell, and because life is the salient characteristic of the cell, its epistemology must be centered on its livingness, not its constituent components. The organization and regulation of these components in the pursuit of life constitute the fundamental nature of the cell. Thus, regulation sits at the heart of biological knowledge of the cell and the extraordinary complexity of this regulation conditions the kind of knowledge that can be obtained, in particular, the representation and intelligibility of that knowledge. This paper is essentially split into two parts. The first part discusses the inadequacy of everyday intelligibility and intuition in science and the consequent need for scientific theories to be expressed mathematically without appeal to commonsense categories of understanding, such as causality. Having set the backdrop, the second part addresses biological knowledge. It briefly reviews modern scientific epistemology from a general perspective and then turns to the epistemology of the cell. In analogy with a multi-faceted factory, the cell utilizes a highly parallel distributed control system to maintain its organization and regulate its dynamical operation in the face of both internal and external changes. Hence, scientific knowledge is constituted by the mathematics of stochastic dynamical systems, which model the overall relational structure of the cell and how these structures evolve over time, stochasticity being a consequence of the need to ignore a large number of factors while modeling relatively few in an extremely complex environment.     

The tree, the network, and the species

To enrich the Hennigian internodal conception of species, a new formalization of the definition of the species concept is proposed. This rigorous definition allows for considerable unification of the various, and sometimes conflicting, techniques of species delimitation used in practice. First, the domain of such a definition is set out, namely, the set of all organisms on Earth, past, present, and future. Next, the focus is on the genealogical relationship among organisms, which provides the key to analysing the giant or global genealogical network (GGN) connecting all these organisms. This leads to the construction of an algorithm revealing the topological structure of the GGN, from families to lineages, ending up with a definition of species as equivalence classes of organisms corresponding to branches of the 'tree of life'. Such a theoretical definition of the species concept must be accompanied by various recognition criteria to be operational. These criteria are, for example, the ill-named 'biological species concepts', 'phylogenetic species concepts', etc., usually, but wrongly, presented as definitions of the species concept. Besides clarifying this disputed point, the definition in the present study displays the huge diversity of the scales (time-scale and population size) involved in actual species, thus explaining away the classical problems raised by previous attempts at defining the species concept (uniparental reproduction, temporal depth of species, and hybridization).  © 2006 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society , 2006, 89 , 509–521.     

The parasitic chytrid, Zygorhizidium, facilitates the growth of the cladoceran zooplankter, Daphnia, in cultures of the inedible alga, Asterionella

In food-web studies, parasites are often ignored owing to their insignificant biomass. We provide evidence that parasites may affect trophic transfer in aquatic food webs. Many phytoplankton species are susceptible to parasitic fungi (chytrids). Chytrid infections of diatoms in lakes may reach epidemic proportions during diatom spring blooms, so that numerous free-swimming fungal zoospores (2-3 microm in diameter) are produced. Analysis shows that these zoospores are rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids and sterols (particularly cholesterol), which indicates that they provide excellent food for zooplankters such as Daphnia. In life-table experiments using the large diatom Asterionella formosa as food, Daphnia growth increased significantly in treatments where a parasite was present. By grazing on the zoospores, Daphnia acquired important supplementary nutrients and were able to grow. When large inedible algae are infected by parasites, nutrients within the algal cells are consumed by these chytrids, some of which, in turn, are grazed by Daphnia. Thus, chytrids transfer energy and nutrients from their hosts to zooplankton. This study suggests that parasitic fungi alter trophic relationships in freshwater ecosystems and may be the important components in shaping the community and the food-web dynamics of lakes.     

Formation of pyrophosphate,tripolyphosphate, and phosphorylimidazole with the thioester,N, S-diacetylcysteamine,as the condensing agent

Summary Reaction of 0.20M orthophosphate with 0.20M N,S-diacetylcysteamine in 0.40M imidazole at pH 7.0 or 8.0 under drying conditions at 50°C for 6 days yields pyrophosphate and tripolyphosphate in the presence and absence of 0.10M divalent metal ion. The efficiency of utilization of N,S-diacetylcysteamine in the formation of pyrophosphate linkages ranges from 3 – 8% under the above conditions. The thioester, N,S-diacetylcysteamine, and imidazole are required for phosphoanhydride formation.Reaction of 0.40M orthophosphate with 0.20M N, S-diacetylcysteamine in 0.40M imidazole at ambient temperature for 6 days yields phosphorylimidazole in the absence or presence of 0.05M MgCl₂. Phosphorylimidazole and pyrophosphate are formed in the presence of 0.05M CaCl₂; pyrophosphate and tripolyphosphate are formed with 0.15M CaCl₂. The efficiency of utilization of N,S-diacetylcysteamine in the formation of pyrophosphate linkages is roughly 7% at 6 days of reaction with 0.15M CaCl₂. The thioester, N,S-diacetylcysteamine and imidazole are required for the formation of phosphoanhydrides. The significance of these reactions to molecular evolution is discussed.Abbreviations P₁ orthophosphate - P₂ pyrophosphate - P₃ tripolyphosphate - ImP phosphorylimidazole - Ac-Csa(Ac) N, S-diacetylcysteamine - Im imidazole     

On the Position of the Genera Turdoides, Argya, Illadopsis, Neociehla, Ptyrticus, Maerosphenus and Pseudoaleippe in the Timaliidæ

Although in these five genera the long broad first primary and rounded wing agree with Timalia pileata, as does the profile of the bill of Argya fulvus and Argya rubiginosus, they do not do so in any other respect,. neither in their habits, nest and eggs, nor in the scutation of the tarsus. We therefore propose to remove them all from the Timaliidae and place them in two separate families, but leaving them in their present position in the classification as placed by Sclater in Syst. Av. Æthiop. ii. 1930.