Post-Disturbance Plant Community Dynamics following a Rare Natural-Origin Fire in a Tsuga canadensis Forest

Opportunities to directly study infrequent forest disturbance events often lead to valuable information about vegetation dynamics. In mesic temperate forests of North America, stand-replacing crown fire occurs infrequently, with a return interval of 2000-3000 years. Rare chance events, however, may have profound impacts on the developmental trajectories of forest ecosystems. For example, it has been postulated that stand-replacing fire may have been an important factor in the establishment of eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) stands in the northern Great Lakes region. Nevertheless, experimental evidence linking hemlock regeneration to non-anthropogenic fire is limited. To clarify this potential relationship, we monitored vegetation dynamics following a rare lightning-origin crown fire in a Wisconsin hemlock-hardwood forest. We also studied vegetation in bulldozer-created fire breaks and adjacent undisturbed forest. Our results indicate that hemlock establishment was rare in the burned area but moderately common in the scarified bulldozer lines compared to the reference area. Early-successional, non-arboreal species including Rubus spp., Vaccinium angustifolium, sedges (Carex spp.), grasses, Epilobium ciliatum, and Pteridium aquilinium were the most abundant post-fire species. Collectively, our results suggest that competing vegetation and moisture stress resulting from drought may reduce the efficacy of scarification treatments as well as the usefulness of fire for preparing a suitable seedbed for hemlock. The increasing prevalence of growing-season drought suggests that silvicultural strategies based on historic disturbance regimes may need to be reevaluated for mesic species.     

The bitter truth about morality: virtue, not vice, makes a bland beverage taste nice

To demonstrate that sensory and emotional states play an important role in moral processing, previous research has induced physical disgust in various sensory modalities (visual, tactile, gustatory, and olfactory modalities, among others) and measured its effects on moral judgment. To further assess the strength of the connection between embodied states and morality, we investigated whether the directionality of the effect could be reversed by exposing participants to different types of moral events prior to rating the same neutral tasting beverage. As expected, reading about moral transgressions, moral virtues, or control events resulted in inducing gustatory disgust, delight, or neutral taste experiences, respectively. Results are discussed in terms of the relation between embodied cognition and processing abstract conceptual representations.     

New Coleoptera records from New Brunswick, Canada: Gyrinidae, Carabidae, and Dytiscidae

Dineutus assimilis Kirby and Dineutus discolor Aubé of the Family Gyrinidae are newly reported from New Brunswick, Canada. Four species of Carabidae, Agonum (Agonum) piceolum (LeConte), Bembidion (Pseudoperyphus) rufotinctum Chaudoir, Harpalus (Harpalus) opacipennis (Haldeman), and Pterostichus (Melanius) castor Goulet & Bousquet are newly reported from New Brunswick and the Maritime provinces, and one species of Dytiscidae, Liodessus noviaffinis Miller, is newly recorded for the province. Collection, habitat data, and distribution maps are presented for each species.     

New Coleoptera records from New Brunswick, Canada: Histeridae

Eighteen species of Histeridae are newly reported from New Brunswick, Canada. This brings the total number of species known from New Brunswick to 42. Seven of these species, Acritus exguus (Erichson), Euspilotus rossi (Wenzel), Hypocaccus fitchi (Marseul), Dendrophilus kiteleyi Bousquet and Laplante, Platysoma cylindricum (Paykull), Atholus sedecimstriatus (Say), and Margarinotus harrisii (Kirby) are recorded from the Maritime provinces for the first time. Collection and bionomic data are presented for these species.     

New Coleoptera records from New Brunswick, Canada: Geotrupidae and Scarabaeidae

Two species of Geotrupidae, Geotrupes splendidus splendidus (Fabricius) and Odonteus liebecki (Wallis), are newly reported for New Brunswick, Canada. Twelve species of Scarabaeidae are added to the faunal list of the province, including Aegialia criddlei Brown, Caelius humeralis (Brown), Dialytellus dialytoides (Fall), Diapterna omissa (LeConte), Diapterna pinguis (Haldeman), Planolinoides aenictus (Cooper and Gordon), Stenotothorax badipes (Melsheimer), and Ataenius strigatus (Say), which are also newly recorded for the Maritime provinces. Collection data, habitat data, and distribution maps are presented for each species.     

New Coleoptera records from New Brunswick, Canada: Eucinetidae and Scirtidae

We report two species of Eucinetidae, Nycteus oviformis (LeConte) and Nycteus punctulatus (LeConte), new to New Brunswick, Canada and confirm the presence of Nycteus testaceus (LeConte). Nycteus oviformis is newly recorded from the Maritime provinces. Additional locality data are provided for Eucinetus haemorrhoidalis (Germar) and Eucinetus morio LeConte. Five species of Scirtidae, Cyphon ruficollis (Say),Prionocyphon discoideus (Say), Sacodes pulchella (Guérin-Méneville), Elodes maculicollis Horn, and Sarabandus robustus (LeConte) are added to the New Brunswick faunal list. Sarabandus robustus is newly recorded from Canada; Cyphon ruficollis, Prionocyphon discoideus and Sacodes pulchella are new for the Maritime provinces. Collection and habitat data, and distribution maps are presented for these species.     

New Coleoptera records from New Brunswick, Canada: Trogossitidae, Cleridae, and Melyridae, with an addition to the fauna of Nova Scotia

Grynocharis quadrilineata (Melsheimer) and Tenebroides corticalis (Melsheimer) of the family Trogossitidae are newly recorded for New Brunswick, Canada. Additional records of the recently reported Calitys scabra (Thunberg)and Ostoma fraterna (Randall) are presented for the province. The record of Ostoma fraterna is the first recent record of this species from New Brunswick. Additional New Brunswick records of the thaneroclerine, Zenodosus sanguineus (Say), are given, indicting that this species is common and widespread in the province. One species of Cleridae, Cymatodera bicolor (Say),is newly reported from New Brunswick, and the adventive Thanasimus formicarius Linnaeus is newly recorded from Nova Scotia and the Maritime provinces. Attalus morulus (LeConte) and Dolichosoma foveicolle (Kirby), family Melyridae, are reported for the first time for New Brunswick and the Maritime provinces. Collection, habitat data, and distribution maps are presented for these species.     

New Coleoptera records from New Brunswick, Canada: Sphindidae, Erotylidae, Monotomidae, and Cryptophagidae

Two species of Sphindidae, Odontosphindus denticollis LeConteand Sphindus trinifer Casey, are reported for the first time for New Brunswick. Another species, Sphindus near americanus LeConte is reported from the province but may be an undescribed species, pending further study. Five species of Erotylidae are newly recorded for the province, including Tritoma humeralis Fabricius and Tritoma sanguinipennis (Say), which are new to the Maritime provinces. Three species of Monotomidae are added to the New Brunswick faunal list, including Pycnotomina cavicollis (Horn), which is newly recorded for the Maritime provinces. Six additional species of Cryptophagidae are reported for the province and the presence of Antherophagus convexulus LeContein New Brunswick is confirmed. Cryptophagus pilosus Gyllenhal and Myrmedophila americana (LeConte) are newly reported to the Maritime provinces.     

New Coleoptera records from New Brunswick, Canada: Anthribidae, Brentidae, Dryophthoridae, Brachyceridae, and Curculionidae, with additions to the fauna of Quebec, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island

We report 63 species of Curculionoidea that are new to New Brunswick (three species of Anthribidae, four species of Brentidae, three species of Dryophthoridae, three species of Brachyceridae, 50 species of Curculionidae). Among these are 27 species (two Anthribidae, two Brenthidae, one Brachyceridae, 22 Curculionidae) that are also newly recorded for the Maritime provinces, and one species, Plesiobaris disjuncta Casey (Curculionidae) that is newly recorded for Canada from New Brunswick and Quebec. Bagous planatus LeConte is reinstated to the faunal list of New Brunswick. Two species of Curculionidae are newly recorded from Nova Scotia and the Maritime provinces, and two others are reported for the first time for Prince Edward Island.     

New Staphylinidae (Coleoptera) records with new collection data from New Brunswick, Canada: Omaliinae, Micropeplinae, Phloeocharinae, Olisthaerinae, and Habrocerinae

Eleven species of Omaliinae are newly recorded from New Brunswick, bringing the total number of species known from the province to 32 described species. Supporting data are presented for the New Brunswick record of Geodromicus strictus (Fauvel) reported by Majka et al. (2011). Micropeplus browni Campbell, Micropeplus laticollis Mäklin (Micropeplinae), Charyhyphus picipennis (LeConte) (Phloeocharinae), Olisthaerus substriatus (Paykull) (Olisthaerinae), Habrocerus capillaricornis (Gravenhorst), Habrocerus magnus LeConte, and Habrocerus schwarzi Horn (Habrocerinae) are also newly recorded for New Brunswick. These are the first records of the latter four subfamilies from New Brunswick. Collection and bionomic data are presented for each species and discussed.