The colonization, ecology and breeding of the Pied Stonechat Saxicola caprata at Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

Data are presented on the colonization, ecology and breeding of the Pied Stonechat Saxicola caprata at Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. The species apparently colonized the area in the 1950s and its habitat requirements seem correlated with the works of European settlement. Pairs appear to occupy a home range year-round and defend it for the greater part of the year. Breeding details are given, including nest site, participation of sexes, clutch size, incubation, breeding success and plumage of fledglings. The large clutch size, double-brooding, breeding with increased day-length, circumscribed breeding season and preference for cooler climates suggest that the species is a fairly recent colonizer from continental Asia. Reasons are advanced for the discontinuous range of this wide-spread species.     

Marine green algae (Chlorophyta) from the north coast of Papua New Guinea

The marine benthic green algae of the north coast of Papua New Guinea (mainly from Madang province) are documented, based on collections made by the first author between 1980 and 1990. All records (118 taxa) are listed with bibliographic, taxonomic, nomenclatural and biogeographical notes. Identification keys are added for genera represented by at least two species. Representatives of the Pseudocodiaceae and some Udoteaceae are illustrated. The green algal flora of the north coast appears to be much richer than that of the south coast where 72 taxa, including 19 unchecked records from literature, are recorded from the Port Moresby area.     

Marine brown algae (Phaeophyta) from the north coast of Papua New Guinea,with a description of Dictyota magneana sp. nov.

The marine benthic brown algae of the north coast of Papua New Guinea (mainly from Madang province) are documented, based on collections made by the first author, between 1980 and 1990. All records [34 identified taxa (+Sargassum spp.)] are listed with bibliographic, taxonomic, nomenclatural and biogeographical notes. The specimens belonging to the genus Dictyota are identified according to recent species definitions. D. magneana De Clerck et Coppejans is described as new to science. Only some representatives of the genus Sargassum have been identified to species level. The phaeophycean flora of the north coast is very similar to that of the south coast (Port Moresby area); nevertheless some differences can be observed.     

Seasonality,diaspore traits and the structure of plant-frugivore networks in Neotropical savanna forest

Complex frugivory networks are common in heterogeneous environments, but how the structure of those networks varies due to seasonality and other environmental factors remains unclear. For example, seasonal variation in rainfall can influence fruit production and diaspore characteristics, which could alter the quantity and quality of resources available to different animals in the network and, hence, network structure. We investigated how a frugivory network varied seasonally in Brazilian savanna (Cerrado), where there are well-defined dry and wet seasons and fructification mainly during the rainy season for most tree species. We recorded fruit consumption by animals during the dry and wet seasons in two different gallery forests and used these data to test the hypotheses that connectance, links per species and nestedness would be higher in the dry season than rainy season due to low available food in the former that would be consumed by various species of frugivores. Concomitantly, we also measured seed width and lipid content from diaspores of the fruiting trees to determine if these characteristics influenced interaction properties between fruiting trees and frugivores. Among the measured network parameters, connectance, links per species and specialization varied between seasons in one site but not in the other, indicating that seasonal variation in networks is not necessarily consistent over time or space. The number of tree species with small diaspores with high lipid content differed between seasons, and those characteristics were key factors increasing the interaction parameter of fruiting trees. We suggest that network stability between seasons may be related to local frugivore diversity, resource availability, and fruit quality.     

Reproduction and growth in three species of West African fruit bats

This study outlines the reproduction periods of the African fruit bats Epomops buettikoferi, Epomophorus garnbianus , and Micropteropus pusillus at two West African savanna sites: a wet southern Guinea savanna and a drier southern Sudanese savanna. At both sites the two annual birth periods were timed such that both lactation by only one weaning period coincided with the rainy season peaks in fruit availability. On this basis we propose that lactation rather than weaning was the important determinant of the timing of reproduction. There was no evidence of cycling of testes size in males corresponding with the seasonal mating periods. E. buettikoferi and M. pusillus females mated at six months and gave birth at the age of 12 months. Males of the two species reached puberty by 11 months and seven months, respectively. Growth rates did not differ between cohorts growing through the wet and dry season and E. buettikoferi and M. pusillus grew at rates of 276 mg/day and 116 mg/day, respectively.     

THE ANNUAL CYCLE IN A TROPICAL WET FOREST HUMMINGBIRD COMMUNITY

In the Caribbean lowlands of Costa Rica, rainfall is moderately seasonal, although even in the driest month over 100 mm of rain usually fall. Flowering of hummingbird food plants shows a peak in the dry season (February-April) and another in the early wet season (July-September), with a severe flower shortage at the end of the rains (November-December). The dry season peak involves largely canopy epiphytes, the wet season peak large herbs of light gaps and edges and forest understory plants. This study examines the responses of the associated community of 22 species of hummingbirds (of which 13 breed, and 12 are common for at least parts of most years) to these spatial and temporal patterns of resource availability. Nearly all common breeding species show a peak of reproductive activity in the dry season, coinciding with the first flowering peak, followed by a discrete moulting season that coincides with the wet season peak of flowering. Of the three species with extended breeding seasons, the two species of hermit, Phaethornis, show moult-breeding overlap to varying degrees on an individual basis. In a number of species moult and breeding appear antagonistic. The annual peak of body weight and fat deposits in all species occur during the second flowering peak, approximately corresponding to the moult. The annual minima of body weight and fat occur in the lean season and the breeding season respectively. The lack of concordance of these two possibly reflects the use of muscle protein as a nutrient source during the lean season. Several species show pronounced habitat shifts through the year, with the sexes sometimes occupying different microhabitats, especially during the dry season. At least five species show pronounced seasonal migrations, largely or entirely leaving La Selva for part of the year. Overall hummingbird numbers are greatest early in the rainy season, lowest in the lean season, with the non-hermits (Trochilinae) showing a more pronounced annual cycle of numbers than the hermits (Phaethorninae). Comparisons with other tropical lowland hummingbird-flower communities are made with respect to the roles of flowers as proximate and ultimate factors regulating the annual cycles and affecting the population biology of the birds.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Alan Barnard (ed.) Hunter‐Gatherers in History, Archaeology and Anthropology Jeremy Beckett. A Study of Aborigines in the Pastoral West of New South Wales: 1958 MA Thesis with New Introduction and Preface Roy Ellen. On the Edge of the Banda Zone. Past and Present in the Social Organization of a Moluccan Trading Network Thomas Gibson. And the Sun Pursued the Moon: Symbolic Knowledge and Traditional Authority among the Makassar Michael Goddard. The Unseen City: Anthropological Perspectives on Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea Lynne Hume and Jane Mulcock (eds). Anthropologists in the Field: Cases in Participant Observation Bruce Rigsby and Nicolas Peterson (eds). Donald Thomson: The Man and Scholar Joel Robbins. Becoming Sinners: Christianity and Moral Torment in a Papua New Guinea Society Rowena Robinson. Christians of India. New Delhi: Sage Publications Gerald Sider. Living Indian Histories: Lumbee and Tuscarora People in North Carolina Monique Skidmore. Karaoke Fascism: Burma and the Politics of Fear Jenny B. White. Money Makes Us Relatives: Women's Labor in Urban Turkey Katharine L. Wiegele. Investing in Miracles: El Shaddai and the Transformation of Popular Catholicism in the Philippines     

Allozyme analysis reveals six species within the Anopheles punctulatus complex of mosquitoes in Papua New Guinea

Abstract. Among samples collected from nineteen localities in Papua New Guinea, we have identified six species within the Anopheles punctulatus complex of mosquitoes, by means of cellulose acetate allozyme electrophoresis. An.punctulatus Dönitz sensu stricto was collected from seven villages in the Madang area and from Buksak, Sausi Mission and an area 18 km SW of Tari; An.koliensis Owen from eight villages in the Madang area, from Popondetta and Brown River near Karema; and An.farauti No. 1 from ten coastal areas including Madang, Lorengau, Popondetta, Port Moresby, Rabaul and Wewak. Three newly recognized species, reported here for the first time, are designated as An.farauti No. 4 from Gonoa and Hudini, Madang area; An.farauti No. 5 from Ketarabo near Goroka; and An.farauti No. 6 from Hiwanda near Tari. Three other known members of the complex, An.clowi Rozeboom & Knight, An.farauti No. 2 (Bryan, 1973) and An.farauti No. 3 (Mahon & Meithke, 1982) were not detected in Papua New Guinea. Problems arising with morphological characters for the identification of species in this group are discussed.     

SEASONAL CHANGES IN NECTAR-FEEDING BY BIRDS AT ZARIA, NIGERIA

Nectar-feeding of birds was recorded during a phenological study of the woody vegetation at Zaria in the Northern Guinea Savanna of Nigeria. Throughout the dry season when it is in a non-breeding state, the Scarlet-breasted Sunbird Nectarinia senegalensis concentrates on the ornithophilous plants which flower in an overlapping sequence, and exploits the smaller-flowered species less frequently. As the flowering of the ornithophilous species decreases at the end of the dry season, the range of other plants exploited increases but, in the early rains as the flowering of the indigenous plants tails off, the sunbird switches to ornamental exotics and the indigenous, shrubby parasite, Tapinanthus globiferus. The bird is more conspicuously insectivorous during the wet season when it breeds. The Pygmy Sunbird Anthreptes platura is a breeding, dry-season visitor which exploits a somewhat different range of small-flowered, mainly entomophilous species and some exotics but also takes nectar from those ornithophilous species it can exploit, as well as the chiropterophilous Parkia clappertoniana. The bulk of the breeding population leaves the district before the flowering of the indigenous plant tails off. The five other species of sunbird recorded in the district are either very rare residents or more numerous wet-season visitors and passage migrants for which records of nectar-feeding are too few to draw conclusions about seasonal changes but the wet-season visitors appear to rely on the garden exotics in the comparative absence of flowering indigenous plants. Nectar-feeding on Bombax costatum and Parkia clappertoniana, where nectar is readily accessible and present in relatively large quantities, was noted for IS species of non-nectariniid birds, some of which were regular visitors. Some examples of flower consumption probably related to nectar-feeding are also mentioned.     

Fluorescent and skeletal density banding in Porites lutea from Papua New Guinea and Indonesia

Shallow water Porites lutea corals were collected along two transects normal to mainland shorelines, parallel to gradients in water quality: one, 7 km long, near Motupore Island in South Papua New Guinea, the other, 70 km long, from Jakarta Bay along the Pulau Seribu chain in the Java Sea. The corals were slabbed and studies were made of skeletal density bands as revealed by X-ray photography and fluorescent bands as revealed by ultraviolet light. Water quality measurements and rain-fall data were assembled for the two areas and related to skeletal banding patterns. For both areas, with increasing distance form mainland there is a decrease in overall brightness of fluorescence in corals and an increase in the contrast between bright and dull fluorescent bands. Fluorescence is bright, but seasonal banding is obscure in corals within about 2 km of stream mouths at Motopure and about 5 km of the coast in Jakarta Bay; this suggests that, despite low freshwater run-off during dry seasons, there are sufficient organic compounds which cause fluorescence in coral skeletons, to swamp seasonal effects. During the wet seasons, deluges of freshwater consequent on mainland rainfall of greater than about 150 mm/ month extend at least 7 km offshore in the Motupore area and perhaps tens of kilometres into Java Sea, giving distinctive bright and dull fluorescent banding in off-shore corals. The fluorescent banding pattern within corals on the Motupore reefs is similar in most corals along the transect and it correlates well with the Port Moresby monthly rainfall data. This relationship suggests that the same body (or bodies) of freshwater affect all reefs of the area during the wet season. The fluorescent banding in Java Sea corals does not show a precise correlation with either mainland or island monthly rainfall data; indeed the pattern of fluorescent banding on Pulau Seribu can only be matched in corals from reefs less than about 25 km apart. This suggests that in this area discrete water bodies carrying the relevant organic acids for coral fluorescence affect the fringing reefs on the chain of islands. Comparisons of fluorescent and density banding have revealed that for these areas, in general, periods of high freshwater run-off are times of deposition of less dense skeleton in Porites lutea corals.     

Effect of Seasonality on the Behavior of an Insectivorous Primate, Tarsius spectrum

The distribution and quality of food resources is generally recognized as the preeminent factor explaining much interspecific and intraspecific variation in the behavior of nonhuman primates. Primates that live in seasonal environments often show predictable responses to fluctuating resources. In order to compensate for the reduction in resource availability, primates variously switch to alternative, poorer quality food sources, increase the amount of time they spend foraging, or increase their daily path length. Some primate species reduce their group size or maximize the group dispersion. I address whether spectral tarsiers (Tarsius spectrum), which are insectivores, modify their behavior in the same ways as frugivores and folivores in response to seasonal or scarce resources. My results indicate that wild spectral tarsiers modify their activity budget in response to seasonal resources. Specifically, during periods of low resource availability, spectral tarsier males and females spent more time traveling and foraging compared to their activity budget during the wet season. Males and females not only increased the amount of time they spent foraging during times of low resource abundance but also modified their foraging behavior. During the wet season, when resource abundance was high, they consumed Orthoptera and Lepidoptera with greater frequency than during the dry season. During the dry season, when resource abundance was low, spectral tarsiers still ate numerous Orthoptera and Lepidoptera, but they also increased consumption of Coleoptera and Hymenoptera. Spectral tarsiers were also more likely to be involved in territorial disputes during the dry season than during the wet season. Intragroup encounters decreased in frequency in the dry season versus the frequency of encounters during the wet season.     

SHORT NOTES

Earlé, R. A. 1981. Factors governing avian breeding in Acacia savanna, Pietermaritzburg, Part 3: Breeding success, recruitment and clutch size. Ostrich 52:235-243.

The clutch size and breeding success of eight species of birds were monitored over a two year period in Acacia savanna. The mean clutch size fluctuated within the breeding season and four patterns of clutch size variation were noted. A smaller proportion of large clutches were laid in the 1979 season when less food was available. Breeding success was higher in the dry 1979 season but fewer breeding attempts were made and the overall recruitment was thus lower. At the peak of the breeding season, in mid-November, breeding success was at its lowest. Predation on nests was the greatest factor reducing breeding success although rain and strong winds affected some species.     

Fruiting Phenology and the Conservation of the Great Pied Hornbill (Buceros bicornis) in the Western Ghats of Southern India1

The phenology of principal fruits consumed by the endangered Great Pied Hornbill (Buceros bicornis) was monitored for two years in a wet forest habitat in southern India. Lipid–rich fruits, produced by several interior forest trees mainly of the family Lauraceae, were highly seasonal in their availability, and their production in the dry, hot season coincided with the breeding of the hornbill. Sugary fruits, produced mainly by several species of Ficus, were available year–round due to aseasonal fruiting patterns. Because Ficus fruited even at times of low fruit resource availability, and was heavily utilized by hornbills and other frugivores, it played a keystone role in the maintenance of the avian frugivore community. Overall fruit production was scarce between July and January during the southwest and northeast monsoon seasons. Vitex altissima produced berries abundantly during much of this time (September–December) and thus was another important fruit resource for avian frugivores. To safeguard the fruit resource base for the Great Pied Hornbill, we recommend: (1) The protection of Ficus and Vitex trees from overexploitation, and (2) the conservation of forest integrity to maintain compositions and densities of the lipid–rich fruit tree species utilized by the hornbill.     

ENROL IN THE SOCIETY

Earlé, R. A. 1981. Factors governing avian breeding in Acacia savanna, Pietermaritzburg, Part 2: Intrinsic factors. Ostrich 52:74-83.

The most important factor governing avian breeding in Acacia savanna is the body condition (protein reserve) of the bird. Breeding can take place only if the female has a large enough protein reserve to form eggs. The protein reserve is dependent on an adequate food supply which is once again dependent on climatic factors. Both the protein reserve and body weight of several species were found to be at their lowest towards the end of the breeding season. Moult and breeding were found to be largely separated in time. In most species examined testis activity was at its lowest between April and June and highest from September to January. Colius striatus showed a less seasonal pattern of testis activity while Nectarinia talatala showed very early testis activity and had fully active testes in May.     

Seasonal variation in the protein content and the grazing of some tropical savanna grasses

This paper presents the effects of seasonal variation on the protein contents of four grass species examined in the experimental fire plots at Kainji Lake National Park in the Northern Guinea savanna zone of Nigeria. Also reported is the proportion of grass utilized on year-long basis. Tropical savanna grasses generally have higher protein contents at the beginning of the growing season than at the end when they become tall, coarse and unpalatable. It is also shown that the percentage of grass species utilized by game follow the seasonal changes in their protein contents; utilization being highest when the protein content of grass is optimum. It is stressed that trees, shrubs and forbs should not be totally eliminated from grazing lands because of the great contribution they make to animal feeding during the dry season when the grasses become dry and coarse with low nutritive value.     

Season‐modulated responses of Neotropical bats to forest fragmentation

Seasonality causes fluctuations in resource availability, affecting the presence and abundance of animal species. The impacts of these oscillations on wildlife populations can be exacerbated by habitat fragmentation. We assessed differences in bat species abundance between the wet and dry season in a fragmented landscape in the Central Amazon characterized by primary forest fragments embedded in a secondary forest matrix. We also evaluated whether the relative importance of local vegetation structure versus landscape characteristics (composition and configuration) in shaping bat abundance patterns varied between seasons. Our working hypotheses were that abundance responses are species as well as season specific, and that in the wet season, local vegetation structure is a stronger determinant of bat abundance than landscape‐scale attributes. Generalized linear mixed‐effects models in combination with hierarchical partitioning revealed that relationships between species abundances and local vegetation structure and landscape characteristics were both season specific and scale dependent. Overall, landscape characteristics were more important than local vegetation characteristics, suggesting that landscape structure is likely to play an even more important role in landscapes with higher fragment‐matrix contrast. Responses varied between frugivores and animalivores. In the dry season, frugivores responded more to compositional metrics, whereas during the wet season, local and configurational metrics were more important. Animalivores showed similar patterns in both seasons, responding to the same group of metrics in both seasons. Differences in responses likely reflect seasonal differences in the phenology of flowering and fruiting between primary and secondary forests, which affected the foraging behavior and habitat use of bats. Management actions should encompass multiscale approaches to account for the idiosyncratic responses of species to seasonal variation in resource abundance and consequently to local and landscape scale attributes.     

BIOLOGY AND BEHAVIOUR OF FRIGATEBIRDS FREGATA SPP. ON ALDABRA ATOLL

Both species nested in mixed colonies in mangrove trees. The tops of trees were usually occupied exclusively by minor and the lower parts by ariel, but most nests of both species were in the intermediate parts of the canopy. The main laying season for both species was July to January. A census showed about 27 000 individuals present at the height of the season (1500 breeding pairs of minor, 5350 of ariel). Seasonal variation in numbers could be accounted for almost entirely by the changes in breeding activity of a resident population. Young of both species were fed at or near the nest-site for at least four months after fledging. A recovery near Bombay of a wing-tagged immature ariel shows that this species, at least, undergoes a post-fledging dispersal; it is suggested that young minor either do not disperse, or do so later than ariel. Food samples collected from chicks showed no overall difference between the species, but a seasonal analysis showed that ariel took more squid than minor in the wet season, and in the dry season the two species took different proportions of the two commonest species of flying-fish. Chicks of ariel received smaller meals than minor chicks in the wet season, but similar-sized meals in the dry season; ariel chicks grew more slowly than minor chicks. It is suggested that the timing of the breeding season is related to the need for adults to build up fat reserves to carry them through the courtship, nest-building and laying periods, when they are tied to the colony and so have little opportunity to feed. The evidence for non-annual breeding in frigatebirds is discussed. It is concluded that while successful breeders must breed at intervals of more than 12 months, they could theoretically nest in two successive seasons and that, since breeding success is low, most individuals probably do so. Existing knowledge of the biology of four of the five recognized species of frigatebirds is summarized, and shows that the family is at least as uniform as the tropicbirds and much more so than other Pelicaniformes.     

Natural history of small mammals of subtropical montane areas in central Taiwan

Based on samples collected in 1989–90, I report on several aspects of the natural history of species of small mammals from seasonal montane areas in subtropical central Taiwan, including their reproduction, demography, sex ratio and body size. The climatic seasonality in the areas is striking. The wet season lasts from May through September and the dry season from October through April. The phenology of plant life is related to this seasonality: vegetative growth occurs primarily in the wet season, but fruit and seed production is concentrated in the dry season. Variation in the reproduction and demography are analysed between the wet and the dry season for six species, Apodemus semotus, Niviventer culturatus. Eothenomys melanogaster, Microtus Kikuchii, Anourosorex syuamipes and Soriculus fumidus . Two murid rodents. A semotus and N. culturatus. are capable of breeding year-round, whereas the microtine rodents, E. melanogaster and M. Kikuchii , have discrete breeding seasons. The shrews, A. squamipes and S. fumidus are both seasonal breeders. but they differ in the timing of their breeding cycles. While S. fumidus breeds primarily in the late dry season, A. syuamipes reproduces in the wet season. Finally, seasonal variation in reproduction is discussed in relation to phylogenetic and physio-ecological characteristics of these six species.     

Bird Assemblage and Visitation Pattern at Fruiting Elmerrillia tsiampaca (Magnoliaceae) Trees in Papua New Guinea

Most tropical trees produce fleshy fruits that attract frugivores that disperse their seeds. Early demography and distribution for these tree species depend on the effects of frugivores and their behavior. Anthropogenic changes that affect frugivore communities could ultimately result in changes in tree distribution and population demography. We studied the frugivore assemblage at 38 fruiting Elmerrillia tsiampaca, a rain forest canopy tree species in Papua New Guinea. Elmerrillia tsiampaca is an important resource for frugivorous birds at our study site because it produces abundant lipid-rich fruits at a time of low fruit availability. We classified avian frugivores into functional disperser groups and quantified visitation rates and behavior at trees during 56 canopy and 35 ground observation periods. We tested predictions derived from other studies of plant–frugivore interactions with this little-studied frugivore assemblage in an undisturbed rain forest. Elmerrillia tsiampaca fruits were consumed by 26 bird species, but most seeds were removed by eight species. The most important visitors (Columbidae, Paradisaeidae and Rhyticeros plicatus) were of a larger size than predicted based on diaspore size. Columbidae efficiently exploited the structurally protected fruit, which was inconsistent with other studies in New Guinea where structurally protected fruits were predominantly consumed by Paradisaeidae. Birds vulnerable to predation foraged for short time periods, consistent with the hypothesis that predator avoidance enhances seed dispersal. We identified seven functional disperser groups, indicating there is little redundancy in disperser groups among the regular and frequent visitors to this tropical rain forest tree species.     

Natural history and demography of <Emphasis Type="BoldItalic">Thalpomys lasiotis</Emphasis> (Thomas, 1916), a rare and endemic species from the Brazilian savanna

Hairy-eared cerrado mouse Thalpomys lasiotis is an endemic species of the cerrado biome. It can be found in open habitats, but its distribution is patchy and population numbers are unknown. In this paper, we describe, for the first time, aspects related to the ecology and natural history of T. lasiotis, detailing demographic parameters such as population densities, reproduction, home range, and longevity of this endemic and rare species. We captured, marked, and recaptured 55 individuals of T. lasiotis in águas Emendadas Ecological Station, located in the northeast of the Federal District, Brazil. We found significant differences on population numbers and densities between the dry and wet seasons. Densities and population numbers apparently are affected by the seasonality of food resources. Moreover, the breeding season is seasonal, and both males and females were reproductively active during the wet season. T. lasiotis showed a permanence time ranging from 2–9 months, which means that individuals can survive for at least 9 months in natural habitats. The home ranges of males and females of T. lasiotis were not significantly different. However, males have larger home ranges than females and the mean distance moved by males was higher than the distance moved by females, which is consistent with the hypothesis that males belonging to polygynous species tend to move greater distances to avoid agonistic encounters and to search sexual partners.