Pollination biology of a night‐flowering Galápagos endemic,Ipomoea habeliana (Convolvulaceae)

Ipomoea habeliana is an endemic, night‐flowering member of the Galápagos flora. Pollination experiments, flower‐visitor observations, nectar sampling, pollen transfer, and pollen to ovule ratio and pollen size studies were included in this project. The large, white flowers of this species set fruit via open pollination (55%), autonomous autogamy (51%), facilitated autogamy (91%), cross‐pollination (80%), diurnal open pollination (60%) and nocturnal open pollination (60%). Fruit set is pollen‐limited. Ants, beetles, crickets and hawk moths regularly visit the flowers. Ants are the most frequent visitors, but hawk moths are the only effective pollinators. Nectar is available throughout the night, but is most abundant early in the evening when hawk moth visits are most frequent. Experiments with fluorescent dust demonstrate intra‐ and inter‐plant pollen movement by hawk moths. Although this species is adapted for hawk moth pollination, it readily sets fruit via autonomous autogamy when no visits are made. Thus, it is concluded that it is facultatively xenogamous. Additional support for this conclusion is provided by the pollen to ovule ratio of 1407 and by the fact that the plants grow in a region that has few or no faithful pollinators. Conservation efforts for I. habeliana should include hand pollinations, which could significantly increase seed set. © 2009 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2009, 160 , 11–20.     

Caprellids (Crustacea: Amphipoda) from Papua New Guinea,with the description of a new species

This is the first study of caprellid amphipods from the coast of Papua New Guinea. Several collections from Madang Lagoon (north) and Bootless Bay (south) have been studied. Seven species in seven genera are recorded, of which Pseudoproto papua sp. nov. is described as new to science. The genus Pseudoproto Mayer, 1903 has consisted, so far, of only one species, Pseudoproto fallax Mayer, 1903. Although only a single male has been found of Pseudoproto papua sp. nov., differences in antennae, mouthparts, gnathopod 2 and pereopods 3 and 4 have revealed that it represents a new species of Pseudoproto. Lateral view figures of all species, together with a key to species level for the Caprellidea from Papua New Guinea are also included. Communicated by H.-D. Franke     

Speciation in a keystone plant genus is driven by elevation: a case study in New Guinean Ficus

Much of the world's insect and plant biodiversity is found in tropical and subtropical ‘hotspots’, which often include long elevational gradients. These gradients may function as ‘diversity pumps’ and contribute to both regional and local species richness. Climactic conditions on such gradients often change rapidly along short vertical distances and may result in local adaptation and high levels of population genetic structure in plants and insects. We investigated the population genetic structure of two species of Ficus (Moraceae) along a continuously forested elevational gradient in Papua New Guinea. This speciose plant genus is pollinated by tiny, species‐specific and highly coevolved chalcid wasps (Agaonidae) and represented by at least 73 species at our study gradient. We present results from two species of Ficus sampled from six elevations between 200 m and 2700 m a.s.l. (almost the entire elevational range of the genus) and 10 polymorphic microsatellite loci. These results show that strong barriers to gene flow exist between 1200 m and 1700 m a.s.l. Whereas lowland populations are panmictic across distances over 70 km, montane populations can be disjunct over 4 km, despite continuous forest cover. We suggest that the limited gene flow between populations of these two species of montane Ficus may be driven by environmental limitations on pollinator or seed dispersal in combination with local adaptation of Ficus populations. Such a mechanism may have wider implications for plant and pollinator speciation across long and continuously forested elevational gradients if generalist insect pollinators and vertebrate seed dispersers also form populations based on elevation.     

The perils of ‘yo‐yo’ thinking: Positioning culture in Pentecostal healing

Like other Pentecostals, the Lelet of central New Ireland, Papua New Guinea, are urged to reject significant aspects of their cultural tradition in order to become born‐again Christians. Most Lelet Pentecostals say that all use of magic must be abandoned. I use the example of healing to show how commitments to break with the past are influenced by life’s exigencies, such as illness. Pragmatic responses to illness may see people move between forms of therapy that are considered mutually exclusive – that is, between Christian healing and magic. Some judge this wavering derisively as “yo‐yo” thinking. I suggest that a more subtle and open‐minded appreciation of the Pentecostal stress on breaking with the past is to see this as situational – that is, as necessarily influenced by contingencies. Despite the rhetoric of absolute rupture being widely proclaimed, putting this into practice while negotiating the exigencies of life is a decidedly more complex and fluid matter. Lelet pragmatism sometimes stands in the way of the radical idealism of Pentecostalism.     

Flight movement of Scapanes australis australis (Boisduval) (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae) in Papua New Guinea: a radiotelemetry study

Abstract We used radiotelemetry and/or chemical light-tags to track the flight of 15 individuals of Scapanes australis in Madang Province, Papua New Guinea. This species causes severe economic impacts on coconut palms in young plantations. Flights to feeding, mating, resting, and possibly oviposition sites covered distances of 52 to 835 m in males, and from 245 m to>1000 m in females. Upon release, females flew in a tight upward spiral above canopy level (>20 m), then usually flew along a single bearing out of radio reception within 1 min of initiating flight. Dispersing females probably follow scent trails to pheromone-releasing males that occupy feeding galleries excavated most frequently in coconut palms, or search for oviposition sites. Most tagged females were not found again, because they dispersed beyond the tracking capabilities of our radio-receivers, but one female was followed for 245 m to a feeding gallery excavated by an adult male. Males typically flew within 5 m of the ground, took erratic flight paths with numerous turns, and frequently circled coconuts and other host plants. We followed males from the release point until they ceased flight for a night. Males passed daylight hours either in a feeding gallery within a host plant or under soil litter.     

Reproductive mechanisms and dynamics of habitat colonization in Microcerotermes biroi (Isoptera: Termitidae)

Abstract. 1. Previous studies on the arboreal termite community in coconut plantations of northern New Guinea showed that Microcerotermes biroi is the most abundant species, despite the fighting superiority of two competitor species Nasutitermes princeps and N.novarumhebridarum. In this study we tested the hypothesis that the success of M.biroi is due to its efficiency at colonizing new habitats following nuptial flights.
2. We demonstrated experimentally the ability of M.biroi colonies to replace their reproductives when removed, or to produce reproductives in satellite nests when isolated from the remainder of the colony. Replacement reproductives were always neotenics, derived from nymphs or workers.
3. Despite the ability of neotenics to differentiate within their home colonies, 84% of field colonies were headed by dealated imagos. This value constitutes a minimum estimate of the proportion of field colonies founded independently by imagos after the nuptial flight.
4. The monitoring of a young plantation during the first 31/2 years of its colonization by arboreal nesting termites revealed its invasion by M.biroi , which colonized 63% of the trees while neither Nasutitermes species appeared.
5. Our results demonstrate that M.biroi is actually a pioneer species, able to invade a new habitat by means of nuptial flights. They outline the importance of each species' reproductive strategy in shaping the arboreal-nesting termite community.     

Biogeographic models of gene flow in two waterfowl of the Australo‐Papuan tropics

There are many large, easy‐to‐observe anseriform birds (ducks, geese, and swans) in northern Australia and New Guinea and they often gather in large numbers. Yet, the structure of their populations and their regional movements are poorly understood. Lack of understanding of population structure limits our capacity to understand source‐sink dynamics relevant to their conservation or assess risks associated with avian‐borne pathogens, in particular, avian influenza for which waterfowl are the main reservoir species. We set out to assess present‐day genetic connectivity between populations of two widely distributed waterfowl in the Australo‐Papuan tropics, magpie goose Anseranas semipalmata (Latham, 1798) and wandering whistling‐duck Dendrocygna arcuata (Horsfield, 1824). Microsatellite data were obtained from 237 magpie geese and 64 wandering whistling‐duck. Samples were collected across northern Australia, and at one site each in New Guinea and Timor Leste. In the wandering whistling‐duck, genetic diversity was significantly apportioned by region and sampling location. For this species, the best model of population structure was New Guinea as the source population for all other populations. One remarkable result for this species was genetic separation of two flocks sampled contemporaneously on Cape York Peninsula only a few kilometers apart. In contrast, evidence for population structure was much weaker in the magpie goose, and Cape York as the source population provided the best fit to the observed structure. The fine scale genetic structure observed in wandering whistling‐duck and magpie goose is consistent with earlier suggestions that the west‐coast of Cape York Peninsula is a flyway for Australo‐Papuan anseriforms between Australia and New Guinea across Torres Strait.     

Pollination in Lilium sargentiae (Liliaceae) and the first confirmation of long‐tongued hawkmoths as a pollinator niche in Asia

The geographical distribution of pollinators is an important factor determining the biogeographical pattern of floral evolution and diversification. In Africa, a guild of plant species has converged in a floral syndrome for pollination by long‐tongued hawkmoths (predominantly Agrius convolvuli). It is hypothesized that such floral convergence could track the geographical distribution of long‐tongued hawkmoths, so it may not be confined to Africa. We investigated the pollination biology of Lilium sargentiae E. H. Wilson, which is endemic to China and exhibits traits suggestive of long‐tongued hawkmoth pollination. Lilium sargentiae was visited by A. convolvuli as well as small beetles (Nitidulidae) but pollination was mostly or totally effected by the moth. It was consistent with other hawkmoth‐pollinated plants in terms of floral tube length, nectar traits, tepal reflectance, and scent composition. We present the first experimental evidence for the hypothesis proposed above and for hawkmoth pollination in the widespread and ornamentally and economically important genus Lilium L. in a natural habitat. Our findings imply that long‐tongued hawkmoths (especially the extremely widespread A. convolvuli) as a distinctive pollinator niche may have underlain the evolution of long‐tubed (>8 cm) flowers across different continents.     

New species of mites (Acari: Astigmata: Heterocoptidae) from the Australian and Oriental regions,with a description of the female of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Uvallicoptes peeteri</Emphasis> Haitlinger, 1999

Heterocoptes lombokensis sp. n. from Lombok, Bali and Java (Indonesia), H. sumatrensis sp. n. from Sumatra (Indonesia), H. samueli sp. n. from Australia, H. barbarae sp. n. from New Britain Islands (Papua New Guinea), H. marcellae sp. n. from Sulawesi (Indonesia) and Nolaecoptes tanahloticus sp. n. from Bali (Indonesia) are described. The female of Uvallicoptes peeteri Haitlinger, 1999 is described and new records for this species are given. Males and females of the genus Heterocoptes are keyed.     

Ecological factors affecting the fitness of the threatened orchid Anacamptis robusta (Orchidaceae): Habitat disturbance,interactions with a co‐flowering rewarding orchid and hybridization events

• The food‐deceptive species Anacamptis robusta is threatened in the Balearic Islands, and its habitat has recently been transformed through human disturbance. This study investigated how human disturbance affects the reproductive output of A. robusta and how its fitness is affected by competition with rewarding relatives, fungal infections and hybridization processes.
• To evaluate the impact of habitat loss on plant fitness, data on reproductive measures were obtained in two well‐conserved subpopulations and the unique disturbed subpopulation. Photo‐trapping cameras were installed to determine the floral visitation rate. All flowering individuals in 2019 were georeferenced using differential GPS to examine the influence of geospatial patterns on the reproductive success of A. robusta. In addition, hand‐pollination treatments were performed to evaluate the hybridization between A. coriophora and A. robusta and the origin of A. × albuferensis.
• The human‐disturbed subpopulation of A. robusta had a lower fruit set success than the subpopulations in well‐conserved areas. The presence of A. coriophora is negatively affecting the reproductive output of A. robusta. Moreover, A. robusta can only act as the pollen donor during hybridization.
• The complexity of the ecological system, which is enhanced by the strong pollinator dependence of the threatened species, must be considered when making conservation decisions. Although human disturbance directly affects plant population stability, other ecological issues must be considered, such as pollinator interaction, interspecific competition for pollinators, fungal infection and hybridization events.

     

Gall‐forming insects in a lowland tropical rainforest: low species diversity in an extremely specialised guild

1. Gall‐forming insects are a guild of endophages that exhibit a high level of fidelity to their host plants, however, their level of host specificity is seldom explicitly tested. 2. Gall‐forming insect taxa from 32 species of woody tropical plants with resolved phylogenetic relationships were collected and reared, representing 15 families from all the major clades of angiosperms, at three lowland rainforest locations in Madang, Papua New Guinea (PNG). 3. More than 8800 galled plant parts were collected from 78 gall morphospecies at an average of 2.4 per host plant. Total species richness at the sampling sites was estimated to be 83–89. All but one morphospecies were monophagous resulting in an effective specialisation of 0.98. 4. Specific leaf weight, foliar nitrogen, the presence of latex, and the successional preference of plant species all gave a phylogenetic signal, but only plant successional preference influenced the species richness of galls on analysis of phylogenetically independent contrasts. Gall species were distributed randomly among host plant species and showed no preference for any particular plant lineage. Furthermore, most gall‐forming taxa were evenly dispersed across the host plant phylogeny. 5. In the tropical rainforests of New Guinea, gall‐forming insects are ubiquitous but occur in species‐poor assemblages. Local species richness is closely tied to the diversity of angiosperms owing to very high host specificity. 6. Finally, galler species richness data from the literature across habitats and latitudes were compared and suggest that tropical rainforests may be richer in galls than previously acknowledged.     

Parabrosmolus novaeguineae,a new genus and species of the subfamily Brosmophycinae from Papua New Guinea (Bythitidae,Ophidiiformes)

Parabrosmolus novaeguineae, a new genus and species of the subfamily Brosmophycinae (family Bythitidae) is described, based on a single specimen from Papua New Guinea. The genus is unique in the tribe Brosmophycini in having six branchiostegal rays and ten precaudal vertebrae, and is also similarly distinguished from two brosmophycine genera,Melodichthys andBeaglichthys, tribal allocations of the two latter being uncertain.Parabrosmolus also differs from all other genera in the subfamily by the following combination of characters: head scaly, anal fin origin slightly before midpoint of body, eye diameter shorter than snout length, three developed rakers on first gill arch and 16 (14+2) caudal fin rays.     

Revision of the termite family Rhinotermitidae (Isoptera) in New Guinea

Recently, we completed a revision of the Termitidae from New Guinea and neighboring islands, recording a total of 45 species. Here, we revise a second family, the Rhinotermitidae, to progress towards a full picture of the termite diversity in New Guinea. Altogether, 6 genera and 15 species are recorded, among which two species, Coptotermes gambrinus and Parrhinotermes barbatus, are new to science. The genus Heterotermes is reported from New Guinea for the first time, with two species restricted to the southern part of the island. We also provide the first New Guinea records for six species of the genera Coptotermes and Schedorhinotermes. We briefly describe soldiers and imagoes of each species and provide a key based on soldier characters. Finally, we discuss the taxonomic and biogeographical implication of our results. A replacement name, Schedolimulus minutides Bourguignon, is proposed for the termitophilous staphylinid Schedolimulus minutus Bourguignon, to solve a question of secondary homonymy.     

Why Alewai village needed a church: Some reflections on Christianity,conversion, and male leadership in south‐east Papua New Guinea

In the Vula'a villages of south‐east Papua New Guinea, the experience of more than a century of Christianity has been incorporated into local understandings of identity and tradition. Church‐building (in both the architectural and ideological sense) is at the centre of village life. Even though it was a general policy of the London Missionary Society to build a church in every village in which conversion was undertaken, they did not build a church in the Vula'a village of Alewai. In 2001 the fact that Alewai did not have a church initiated a chain of events that draws attention to a situation of current relevance for Papua New Guinea, as evangelists no longer work to convert the ‘heathen’ but to convert Christians from one denomination to another. As a case study the article is focused on the pastors and deacons of the United Church and thus also serves to document some of the changes that have occurred in male leadership since the early colonial era.     

Mesophyll cell‐sucking herbivores (Cicadellidae: Typhlocybinae) on rainforest trees in Papua New Guinea: local and regional diversity of a taxonomically unexplored guild

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Pollination system of Corylopsis gotoana (Hamamelidaceae) and its stonefly (Plecoptera) co‐pollinator

The order Plecoptera is primarily known for its aquatic nymphs and their importance in many stream ecosystems. However, the biology and life history of Plecopteran terrestrial adults is mostly unknown, and hence interactions with plants have rarely been documented. Here, we report on insect visitation to flowers of Corylopsis gotoana (Hamamelidaceae) in a temperate forest of Japan, with emphasis on the behavior and pollination role of adults of a stonefly species, Strophopteryx nohirae (Taeniopterygidae), which were frequently observed in the flowers. The most frequent insect visitors to Corylopsis flowers were Bombylius major (Bombyliidae), Apis cerana (Apidae) and Bombus ardens (Apidae), all of which were considered main pollinators because of high rates of visitation and pollen attachment. Strophopteryx nohirae frequently visited Corylopsis trees, on which they foraged for pollen and mated. A field experiment on the pollination success of Corylopsis flowers visited by S. nohirae verified that this stonefly contributed to pollination.     

Pikisi kwaiyai! (pictures tonight!): The screening and reception of ethnographic film in the Trobriand Islands,Papua New Guinea

Ethnographic films hold great historical value for the communities in which they were filmed, yet people in source communities often lack access to them. Visitors engaging in ‘visual repatriation’ of ethnographic film can enrich both sides of the ethnographic exchange. I review my experiences screening ethnographic films with Trobriand Islanders, their reactions, and the various ways in which local communities regain ownership of these films, including re‐narration and renaming. My findings reiterate how source communities' reception of, and uses for, ethnographic film can sharply differ from the filmmakers' original agenda.