Repeatability of mate choice in female red jungle fowl

We staged female mate choice trials between pairs of males andrepeated the process for each female to determine the repeatabilityof female preference for males in red jungle fowl (Gallus gallus)in the first and second half of the breeding season. We measuredmale morphological traits (the size and color of the comb andthe brightness of the hackle feathers) that females are knownto use in choosing a mate. In the first half of the breedingseason, females showed repeatability in their choices of matewith respect to the male's comb characters. Females did notshow a repeatable preference with respect to male hackle feathers,and we found no repeatability of mate choice in the second halfof the season. Females seem to primarily look at the male'scomb when choosing a mate, and other ornaments seem only ofsecondary importance.[Behav Ecol 7: 243-246 (1996)]     

Behavioral responses of a sex-role reversed pipefish to a gradient of perceived predation risk

Conspicuous behaviors such as courtship and mating often makeanimals susceptible to predation. When perceiving themselvesat an elevated level of risk, animals frequently reduce conspicuousbehaviors in tradeoff for a decrease in probability of beingpreyed upon. In the present study, we used two experiments toexamine the effect of perceived predation risk from cod (Gadusmorhud) on nonreproductive and reproductive behaviors in thesex-role reversed pipefish (Syngnathus typhle). In the firstexperiment, no differences due to predation risk were detectedin the nonreproductive behaviors of either males or females.In the second experiment, predation risk had significant effectson reproductive behaviors. Pipefish were allowed to court andcopulate at four different predation levels. We created predationlevels differing in perceived predation risk by controllingthe number of sensory modes through which pipefish could detectthe presence of a cod. As predation risk increased, pipefishcopulated and courted less frequently, swam alone (displayedand searched for conspecifics) less often, and waited longerbefore commencing courtship. These changes in behavior minimizedthe amount of time spent above the eelgrass and presumably reducedconspicuousness to visual predators. Pipefish also copulatedafter a smaller amount of courtship as predation risk increased,indicating that they may trade information concerning mate qualityfor a reduction in predation risk. No differences were foundin any response variable between males and females. The roleof operational sex ratios and intersexual competition in determiningwhich sex assumes greater costs in mate acquisition is questioned.     

No evidence of inbreeding avoidance or inbreeding depression in a social carnivore

Dispersal by young mammals away from their natal site is generallythought to reduce inbreeding, with its attendant negative fitnessconsequences. Genetic data from the dwarf mongoose, a pack-livingcarnivore common in African savannas, indicate that there areexceptions to this generalization. In dwarf mongoose populationsin the Serengeti National Park, Tanzania, breeding pairs arecommonly related, and close inbreeding has no measurable effecton offspring production or adult survival. Inbreeding occursbecause average relatedness among potential mates within a packis high, because mating patterns within the pack are randomwith respect to the relatedness of mates, and because dispersaldoes little to decrease the relatedness among mates. Young femalesare more likely to leave a pack when the dominant male is aclose relative but are relatively infrequent dispersers. Youngmales emigrate at random with respect to the relatedness ofthe dominant female and tend to disperse to packs that containgenetically similar individuals.[Behav Ecol 7: 480–489(1996)]     

稻茎毛眼水蝇幼虫田间分布型及抽样技术

根据14丘稻田稻茎毛眼水蝇幼虫调查资料．对其幼虫分布型进行了分析。结果表明;用I、CAm／m、Iσ四种聚集指标法测定,64．3％的田块呈随机分布．28．4%为均匀分布．7．3%为聚集分布。用Iwao平均拥挤度和Taylor幂法则测定．其田间分布型符合随机分布。用频次拟合法测验,50%的田块同时符合渡松、奈曼和负二项分布三种分布型;35．7%的田块同时符合2种分布型。根据该虫田间分布型的特点．制定了相应的序贯抽样技术。     

The efficiency of patch sampling for determination of relative tick burdens in comparison with total tick counts

Quanttative data on host tick burdens ar fundamental for the initiation of control strategies and effective management of wildlife populations, but the methods of live sampling employed for domestic animals are unsuitable for sampling wild animals. Despite advances in the use of destructive methods (the scrub and digestion techniques) to obtain measures of the total tick burden on wildlife, these methods are too involved for many field workers, who often need only measures of relative tick burden. Recently, patch sampling methods have been introduced whereby only certain predilection sites are sampled, the presumption being that the number of ticks collected gives an indiccation of the relative degree of infestation. We examined the validity of patch sampling as a measure of relative tick burden by comparing adult ticks collected from the ears, head, neck, foreleg and perianal region of impala (aepyceros melampus) with total tick burdens of the same animals derived from the digestion technique. Adult ticks from patch sampling were positively and significantly correlated with total adults and total ticks (larvae, nymphs, and adults) on impala, with ticks patch sampled from the neck showing the highest correlation with the total tick burden. Comparison of relative tick loads from patch sampling with absolute tick loads from digestion for three classes of impala (females, bachelor males and territorial males) gave qualitatively similar results. We conclude that, when measures of relative tick load are sufficient and destructive sampling is not feasible, patch sampling can provide reliable information on relative tick burdens that are positively correlated with the total tick burden.     

Female 15-spined sticklebacks detect males with empty nests by non-visual cues

Reproductive female 15-spined sticklebacks Spinachia spinachia chose water flowing from an unmated nesting male rather than water flowing from no male. Since the female could see neither the male nor his nest, this result suggests that she received non-visual signals.     

Enhanced early detection and enumeration of zebra mussel (Dreissena spp.) veligers using cross-polarized light microscopy

Zooplankton with calcareous skeletons are birefringent under cross-polarized light, and thus this technique can be quite useful, indeed sometimes almost essential, for the detection and enumemeration of these types of organisms in plankton samples. A simple and inexpensive application of this technique is described and illustrated with quantitative examples from research on the veligers of the zebra mussel Dreissena polymorpha (Pallas). The time required to detect veligers in plankton samples was decreased by an order of magnitude; the accuracy of counts was substantially improved (15% more than controls), and the time required for counts was greatly reduced (41% of control times). This technique is especially useful in situations in which veligers are difficult to find or see (e.g., at low densities, in samples cluttered with extraneous organisms or material) or when the investigator is inexperienced with plankton sampling and planktonic organisms. The major limitations are its inability to discriminate among various bivalve species that have planktonic larvae and the similar appearance of ostracods which also have calcareous shells. Expanded use of this technique should (1) increase our ability to use plankton sampling for the early detection of veligers during range expansion and reproductive cycles and (2) permit more accurate estimates of veliger abundance.     

Cervex brush versus vaginal–cervical–endocervical (VCE) triple smear techniques in cervical sampling

Cervex brush versus vaginal–cervical–endocervical (VCE) triple smear techniques in cervical sampling
Cervex brush sampling was compared with the conventional triple vaginal–cervical–endocervical (VCE) smear technique. Nine hundred and fifty‐nine Cervex brush smears and 1064 VCE smears were studied. All smears with both methods were technically satisfactory for evaluation. Endocervical cells were found in 90.7% and metaplastic cells in 73.3% of Cervex brush samples and in 92.5% and 64.1% of VCE samples, respectively. There were significantly more metaplastic cells in smears from premenopausal women. Low grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (SIL) was found in three Cervex brush samples and in two VCE samples. High‐grade SIL was found only in one Cervex brush sample. Benign cellular changes were found in 142 Cervex brush samples and in 144 VCE samples. Sampling with the Cervex brush is efficient, simple and fast and gives high quality cervical smears for cytological evaluation.     

Long timestep dynamics of peptides by the dynamics driver approach

Previous experience with the Langevin/implicit-Euler scheme for dynamics (“LI”) on model systems (butane, water) has shown that LI is numerically stable for timesteps in the 5–20 fs range but quenches high-frequency modes. To explore applications to polypeptides, we apply LI to model systems (several dipeptides, a tetrapeptide, and a 13-residue oligoalanine) and also develop a new dynamics driver approach (“DA”). The DA scheme, based on LI, addresses the important issue of proper sampling, which is unlikely to be solved by small-time step integration methods or implicit methods with intrinsic damping at room temperature, such as LI. Equilibrium averages, time-dependent molecular properties, and sampling trends at room temperature are reported for both LI and DA dynamics simulations, which are then compared to those generated by a standard explicit discretization of the Langevin equation with a 1 fs timestep. We find that LI's quenching effects are severe on both the fast and slow (due to vibrational coupling) frequency modes of all-atom polypeptides and lead to more restricted dynamics at moderate timesteps (40 fs). The DA approach empirically counteracts these damping effects by adding random atomic perturbations to the coordinates at each step (before the minimization of a dynamics function). By restricting the energetic fluctuations and controlling the kinetic energy, we are able with a 60 fs timestep to generate continuous trajectories that sample more of the relevant conformational space and also reproduce reasonably Boltzmann statistics. Although the timescale for transition may be accelerated by the DA approach, the transitional. information obtained for the alanine dipeptide and the tetrapeptide is consistent with that obtained by several other theoretical approaches that focus specifically on the determination of pathways. While the trajectory for oligoalanine by the explicit scheme over the nanosecond timeframe remains in the vicinity of the full α_R-helix starting structure, and a high-temperature (6000°K) MD trajectory departs slowly from the a helical structure, the DA-generated trajectory for the same CPU time exhibits unfolding and refolding and reveals a range of conformations with an intermediate helix content. Significantly, this range of states is more consistent with spectroscopic experiments on small peptides, as well as the cooperative two-state model for helix–coil transition. The good, near-Boltzmann statistics reported for the smaller systems above, in combination with the interesting oligoalanine results, suggest that DA is a promising tool for efficiently exploring conformational spaces of biomolecules and exploring folding/unfolding processes of polypeptides. © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.