Water lilies and scarabs: faithful partners for 100 million years?

Night-flowering water lilies (Nymphaeaceae) in South America are pollinated by Cyclocephala scarab beetles (Scarabaeidae: Cyclocephalini) in a specialized relationship involving synchronized flowering movements, strong floral scent, food tissues, and heat-producing flowers. We report that a similar and closely related association exists in West Africa between Nymphaea lotus L. and Ruteloryctes morio Fabricius (Cyclocephalini). This finding strongly supports a late Early Cretaceous origin of a symbiosis between the night-flowering water lilies and pollinating Cyclocephalini beetles. We believe that this is the first unambiguous evidence of a plant-pollinator relationship of this age.  © 2003 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society , 2003, 80 , 539–543.     

Contribution from Stolons and Roots to Estimates of the Total Amount of N2Fixed by White Clover (Trifolium repensL.)

Growth and N-accumulation rates in leaves, stolons and rootsof individual white clover plants were studied in three experimentsusing two methods. In a growth chamber experiment, the relativedifferences between tissues were found to be almost constantfor a wide range of clover plant sizes. The stolon dry matter(DM) production was 56% and the root DM production 40% of theDM production in leaves. The N yield of stolons was 30% whileN yield in roots was 34% of N yield in leaves. The effect ofN application on these relations was investigated in a glasshouseexperiment. Application of N reduced the root:shoot N ratiofrom 0.50 to 0.28, whereas the stolon+root:leaf N ratio (i.e.for abovevs.below cutting-height tissues) was only reduced from0.97 to 0.80. In a field trial with two contrasting N regimes,growth and N accumulation were measured on individual cloverplants. Dinitrogen fixation was estimated by¹⁵N isotope dilutionbased on analysis of leaves-only or by including stolons. Usingleaves-only did not affect the calculation of percentage ofclover N derived from N₂fixation (% Ndfa) since the¹⁵N enrichmentwas found to be uniform in all parts of the clover. A correctionfactor of 1.7 to account for N in below cutting-height tissueis suggested when N₂fixation in white clover is estimated byharvesting the leaves only.Copyright 1997 Annals of Botany Company Leaves; N accumulation; N₂fixation; ¹⁵N isotope dilution; pastures; roots; root/shoot ratio; stolons; Trifolium repensL.; white clover     

The Storm's Stork Ciconia stormi in Indonesia: breeding biology, population and conservation

Storm's Stork Ciconia stormi is one of the rarest of the storks, regarded as globally endangered and found only in parts of western Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. Prior to this study, its breeding biology was unknown and the population status in Indonesia was not well understood. Its breeding habitat, prey, behaviour, voice, eggs and the development of the young are described here for the first time. Breeding biology was studied in 1989 at a nest in south Sumatra, Indonesia. The nest was in the transition zone between mangrove and freshwater swamp forest. Incubation took less than 29 days, and two eggs hatched. Fish 2–7 cm long comprised 67% of the prey for feeding young. The chick was fully feathered at 52–57 days and was seen flying when 57–62 days old. The species is rare in south Sumatra. It occurs in low numbers and flocks of up to seven birds were observed. The density is estimated at 20–40 birds within 110,000 ha of primary swamp forest. At this density, the population would be below 100 birds in south Sumatra and between 100 and 300 in Indonesia. The species is threatened by development and conversion of primary swamp forest.