Huntington's chorea. The Liège experience

The hereditary choreas are studied in Liège since twenty-five years. The records of psychiatric hospitals (ruled by the belgian law on confinement, 1850-1873), the archives of the "Etat-Civil" (since 1806) and the parochial registers (XVIIIth century) were tapped. From hundreds of choreic records, unquestionable or dubious, genealogical trees, sometimes stretching along nine generations were built up. About fifty pedigrees gather the patients of four Belgian provinces (out of nine). The oldest and undeniable document was written in 1793. With this wealth in hand, we are able to corroborate or invalidate diagnosis of Huntington's chorea put forward by today psychiatrists and neurologists. The diagnostic blunders were not uncommon and, sometimes, funny. The geneticist comes often too late, post mortem, through archives. When he intervenes in due time, his advice is usually not successful with young adults, uninstructed and in love. The frequency of the disease is estimated around 1 in 10.000 births. The disappearance of old pedigrees and the dawn of new ones can be predicted. Our followers will observe it and, perhaps, be able to measure the frequency of mutation.     

Fetal or neonatal autopsy and genetic counseling. Experience of the Human Genetic Service of Liège

From January 1976 to June 1984, 308 necropsies were performed on neonates and fetuses of various gestational age, mainly coming from hospitals of the province of Liege. 41% of the necropsied infants have at least one malformation and 34% of the malformed show multiple birth defects. There were 17 anatomo-clinic diagnoses of chromosomal aberrations but only 12 cases were confirmed by caryotype, for practical or technical reasons. One third of the parents of the necropsied infants came for genetic counselling with a high recurrence risk in 13% of the advices. For further improvement of the possibilities of diagnosis, we are pleading in favour of more frequent radiological and chromosomal fetal examinations. This must lead us to better convince obstetricians and neonatologists and get more favourable practical conditions to carry out the necropsies.     

Synthèse biostratigraphique du plio-pléistocène de Guadix-Baza (Province de Granada,Sud-Est de l'Espagne)

In the Guadix-Baza basin, a continental sequence 0214 ranging from the Upper Miocene (Upper Turolian) to the Middle Pleistocene (Cromerian) has been established. An essay of biozonation by means of the Rodent succession is proposed, based on the following biozones: Trilophomys castroi, Mimomys occitanus, Mimomys cappetai, Mimomys cf. reidi, Mimomys ostramosensis, Allophaiomys pliocaenicus, Mimomys savini and Arvicola cantiana.     

Hemicyon mayorali nov. sp., Ursidae du Miocène moyen de Tarazona de Aragon (bassin de l'Ebre,Aragon, Espagne)

Study of a new species of an ursid, Hemicyon mayorali of Tarazona de Aragon in Spain. This species differs from the other species of the genus by the lengthening of the snout and the morphology of M2.     

Modèle de cage permettant d'obtenir la ponte d'un diptèreBombyliidae,villa quinquefasciata Wied. AP. Meig.

Summary This paper describes a breeding cage for the adults ofVilla quinquefasciata. The cage (3×4×2 meters high; wooden frame supporting a plastic screen) lies out of doors. Twenty centimeters above the ground, there is a wooden floor pierced by a number of holes. Somes of these receive boxes filled with sand; in the others, are embedded wooden panels provided with a circular opening of about 20 centimeters in diameter. A wire screen is fixed under each panel and bears one or several stones. Finally, a removable funnel is fixed under each panel and is fitted into a vial. The females fill up their ?perivaginal pouch? in the sand boxes, and then eject the eggs towards the base of the stones. The eggs, as they fall, are collected inside the vials. Nevertheless, as the wooden frame casts a shadow, the females eject also their eggs all around the cage. These eggs are collected using a small vacuumcleaner. The adults mate easily in captivity. They refuse to feed, and their longevity is low (no more than 6 days). This cage allows one, however, to easily obtain a large number of eggs from a rather small number of adults (for example, in 1965, 42,000 eggs from 503 adults).      

Premiers stades de l'oogenèse de Rhabdophaga saliciperda (Cecidomyiidae,Diptera)

The females of Rhabdophaga saliciperda have in their somatic cells 8 chromosomes and the males 6. The type of sex determination is therefore: X₁X₁X₂X₂—♀; X₁X₂—♂. The cells of the germinal line have 46 chromosomes, but a variation of their number was observed. In the oogonia and spermatogonia the number of heterochromatic chromosomes may exceed the number of E chromosomes, i.e. 8. In the beginning of the growth stage of the oocytes an incorporation of somatic cells was observed. The nuclei of these somatic cells persist in the cytoplasm of the oocytes until the maturation divisions. The possibility of their participation in the reconstruction of the nucleus of the mature egg is envisaged. The metaphase of the I segmentation division has a complex character. During prophase of the first meiotic division the E chromosomes form 4 bunches of 6–8 chromosomes each. Some univalents may also be present. The 8 S chromosomes form 4 regular bivalents. The 4 groups of E chromosomes persist until metaphase I. During metaphase I a phenomenon of expulsion of the majority of E chromosomes from the metaphase spindle was observed. The 4 bivalents remain in the equatorial plain of the spindle with some E Chromosomes. After this expulsion 2 groups of chromosomes are formed. In connection with them 2 spindles develop. An irregular distribution of E chromosomes follows without their division. The bivalents are probably separated in regular manner. These 2 spindles correspond to the I maturation division. The II maturation division was not observed because of lack of respective stages.     

Note sur les Siphonaptères de l’Émirat de Ras Al Khaimah: description de Nosopsyllus (Gerbillophilus) jabeljaisensis n. sp. (Siphonaptera,Ceratophyllidae, Ceratophyllinae)

Vingt-deux puces collectées lors de captures de Acomys dimidiatus et Gerbillus dasyurus dans les montagnes de Ras Al Khaimah aux Émirats arabes unis ont été identifiées comme appartenant à deux espèces. Un nouveau taxon est décrit dans le genre Nosopsyllus

http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:ACB8C547-5A7C-4D45-BBC3-2ABD705FE797     

L’Art rupestre d’Alta,Norvège. Art et conscience

Located in northern Scandinavia, rock art sites from Alta are the silent witness of ancient people. Considering landscape, surfaces and engravings gives the opportunity to understand the relation of pictures to their context. Simultaneous understanding of both rock surface and picture offer to reach a graphical discourse. On the other hand mythology gives a new perspective to engravings and integrates them into a global values’ system. Power over representation and the rise of sacred feeling produce by those engravings create a special space closer to a higher reality. In that more than natural space respect to precise rules is of the first importance. By a metaphysic's knowledge, the shaman insures good fortune and well-being to the entire group. This paper offers to consider those different aspects and to shed light on their importance.     

Nouvelles espèces de Cricetidés vicariantesdans le Turolien moyen de Fortuna (Prov. Murcia,Espagne)

In this paper, two new species of Cricetidae, Hispanomys adroveri nov. sp. and Kowalskia meini nov. sp., from the locality of Casa del Acero (Fortuna basin, Middle Turolian, MN 12) are described. They have, in general, less evolved characters than their vicariant pairs in the Central Spain basins Ruscinomys schaubi and Kowalskia fahlbuschi. The latter is interpreted as being the result of the presence of more humid conditions in the Levant province than in the Interior basins.     

Orthida (brachiopoda) de la formation de Postolonnec (Ordovicien) Finistère,France

Three species of Orthida are described from the «Schistes de Postolonnec Formation. The distribution of Crozonorthis musculosa n. g., n. sp. allows to improve the correlations between the Iberic Peninsula and the Armorican massif and supply new arguments for a Llandeilian age to a part of the «Schistes de Postolonnec Formation.     

化石大孢子Tricristatispora tricristata(Li,1974)comb.nov.

三冠大孢属Ｔｒｉｃｒｉｓｔａｔｉｓｐｏｒａ是我国西部地区上三叠统特征的常见化石。此前分别命名为Ｃａｌａｍｏｓｐｏｒａ ｔｒｉｃｒｉｓｔａｔａ Ｌｉ,１９７４,Ｔｒｉｃｒｉｓｔａｔｉｓｐｏｒａ ａｐｈｅｌａ Ｌｉｕ,１９８１和Ｖｉｂｕｒａｍｅｇａｓｐｏｒａ ｏｒｉｅｎｔａｌｉｓ Ｚｈａｎｇ,１９８４的几个种实属具相同特征的同种化石,后２个种名为前１种的晚出同义名,应予废弃。这里将种名ｔｒｉｃｒｉｓｔ     

Une nouvelle espèce d'Apodemus (Rodentia,Mammalia)du Pliocène de la dépression de Guadix-Baza (Grenade,Espagne)

This paper describes a new species of Apodemus,A. agustii, a Middle Pliocene Muridae from the Guadix-Baza basin. Its morphology is far from that postulated as more frequent in Apodemus: its molars crowns are relatively high: there is no connection between t6 and t9 in M¹ and M². Taking in account this and its age, it is placed in an evolutionary branch, convergent with “Rhagapodemus” morphotype.