Observations onApoica pallens,a nocturnal neotropical social wasp (Hymenoptera: Vespidae,Polistinae, Epiponini)

Summary Colonies and nests ofApoica pallens in the llanos region of Venezuela range from small foundress nests to large mature colonies. Nests are sited on small diameter, near-horizontal branches in a variety of shrub and tree species. During the day, adult wasps cluster on the face of the nest in an array that seems to be determined by orientation to gravity; defense of the colony against parasitoids and ants by the resting wasps may be more a passive than an active behavior. Wasps fan their wings to cool the colony during the day, but no foraging for water accompanies the fanning behavior. Nightly foraging activity begins with the explosive departure from the nest of hundreds of wasps, most of which rapidly return. Moderate foraging levels early at night give way to very low foraging levels in pre-dawn hours. The period of moderate foraging may be extended for longer hours during increased moonlight. Foraging wasps collect arthropod provisions for larvae. Larvae produce a trophallactic saliva; adults engage in inter-adult trophallaxis; brood are cannibalized. During cluster formation prior to swarm emigration, adult wasps do not appear to scent-mark substrates such as leaves. Instead,A. pallens exhibits a calling behavior, unique among polistine wasps studied to date, in which the gaster is held rigidly away from the thorax and metasomal sternal glands are exposed. Swarms can emigrate during the day.A. pallens may incorporate absconding and colony relocation as features of its colony cycle in the highly seasonal llanos.     

Early agonistic experience and rank acquisition among free-ranging infant rhesus monkeys

Several aspects of agonistic experience are described for freeranging infant rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta)on Cayo Santiago. Even before infants are fully integrated with peers in rank dominance based on maternal ranks,infants of highranking mothers tend to be threatened less frequently by other members of the group and are less likely to be threatened by unfamiliar individuals than are infants of lowranking mothers. There is no evidence that fearful interactions between pairs of infants are related to their mother’s ranks before 22 weeks of age. However, an imperfect hierarchy can be constructed for infants between 27 and 30 weeks of age. At this age,infants of higherranking mothers are also more likely to receive protection when threatened than are infants of lowerranking mothers. When protected, their protectors are less likely to emit fearful gestures to the infants’ threatener. Close female relatives appear to play a large role in the protection of infants and may be more directly responsible for the differences described above than the mother, other relatives, or other highranking members of the group. It is suggested that more than one mechanism, including intervention by the mother and by close female relatives,may be important in rank acquisition among peers.     

Comb cutting inRopalidia plebeiana: a new process of colony fission in social wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)

Summary Females of an Australian polistine wasp,Ropalidia plebeiana, often use their mandibles to cut their nest-comb in spring, dividing it into two or more completely independent nests. Prior to the division, each of the major egg layers, often with some subordinates, tended to occupy a different part of a single comb. These females gnawed cells in the intermediate zone between such territories, and ultimately divided the comb. Many other females also built new nests near the nest aggregations, but addition of new nests by comb cutting represented 34.8 % of the increase in nest number. This method of colony fission is so far unknown in any eusocial Hymenoptera.     

Familiarity accentuates gaze cuing in women but not men

Gaze cuing, the tendency to shift attention in the direction other individuals are looking, is hypothesized to depend on a distinct neural module. One expectation of such a module is that information processing should be encapsulated within it. Here, we tested whether familiarity, a type of social knowledge, penetrates the neural circuits governing gaze cuing. Male and female subjects viewed the face of an adult male looking left or right and then pressed a keypad to indicate the location of a target appearing randomly left or right. Responses were faster for targets congruent with gaze direction. Moreover, gaze cuing was stronger in females than males. Contrary to the modularity hypothesis, familiarity enhanced gaze cuing, but only in females. Sex differences in the effects of familiarity on gaze cuing may reflect greater adaptive significance of social information for females than males.     

Social behavior of Matschie's tree kangaroos (Dendrolagus matschiei) and its implications for captive management

Social behavior was studied in four (one male and three females) adult, captivebred Matschie's tree kangaroos (Dendrolagus matschiei) over a 124 day span in a large, naturalistic exhibit at the Woodland Park Zoological Gardens, Seattle, WA. A relatively high rate of social interaction occurred (15.2 per hour), over half of which consisted of approaches and nose contacts. The male initiated 54.1% of all social behaviors. Females tended to respond aggressively toward the male (avoid, bite, cuff, or swipe). The male initiated more affiliative behaviors and the females initiated more agonistic behaviors toward both the male and other females. A clear-cut dominance hierarchy could not be determined; reversals (i.e., cases in which the “subordinate” supplanted the “dominant”) occurred 43% of the time overall. Non-aggressive contact behavior consisted primarily of olfactory examination (nose contact). Allogrooming was extremely rare. The high level of agonism and lack of consistent association among individuals suggests that this species may be solitary in the wild. Two joeys were found dead on the floor during the course of the study, and based on previous findings, infanticide or behavioral stress was suspected to be the cause. Successful reproduction did not occur until females were isolated by removing other conspecifics from the enclosure.     

Growth hormone affects behaviour of wild brown trout Salmo trutta in territorial owner–intruder conflicts

The effects of growth hormone (GH) implants on aggression, and ability to win dyadic territorial conflicts were studied in brown trout Salmo trutta parr. Bovine GH or vehicle (C) was given to either the territory owner or the intruder in four treatment combinations: C and C, C and GH, GH and C, GH and GH (owner and intruder). GH‐treated intruders initiated significantly more conflicts compared to control intruders. Furthermore, GH treatment of either the owner or intruder tended to increase aggression of the intruder. This indicates that intruders have more scope for motivational increase, while the motivation of owners is already at a maximum. The GH treatment, however, did not affect the outcome of the conflict. It thus appears that growth enhancement increases intruder aggression without increasing the chance of winning the conflict, which may have implications for the effect of growth‐selected or growth‐enhanced farmed Atlantic salmon Salmo salar on wild populations.     

寡居种悦目金蛛若蛛群居机制初步研究

对寡居种悦目金蛛Argiope amoena若蛛群居生活对其结网的影响、温度和种群大小对若蛛存活率的影响、若蛛对限制性空间的利用及其扩散方式进行了观察和研究.结果表明,若蛛从卵袋出蛰后不经历群居扩散即具备结网能力,可结完整网,也具备在扩散前不进食水存活的能力;在变温条件下若蛛存活率要远远高于室温条件下的存活率,而在室温条件下若蛛开始死亡和半数死亡的时间比其聚居期长得多;若蛛主要通过群体空中扩散的方式进行扩散,可以减小能耗与敌害的威胁;不同种群大小的若蛛在限制性空间的分布均从第5d左右开始发生较大变化的,这与在空间不受限的条件下若蛛在第5d开始扩散的结果是一致的.据此我们推断:个体扩散代价最小化(包括御敌和能耗)和维持种群较高的生存率可能是寡居种悦目金蛛若蛛群居生活的主要原因.     

社会工作理念与医患冲突调解机制的建立

社会工作作为一种综合性专业性的助人活动,其理念应用于医疗实践能以专业的价值观和科学的方法,通过提供各种辅导和服务,协助患者及其家属与医方进行有效的沟通,促使医疗技术和服务更人性化地满足患者的需要,从而构建和谐的医患关系。在此过程中,社会工作者针对医患关系发展的不同阶段,分别拓展出不同的工作策略,扮演不同的服务角色。     

Diminished social interaction incentive contributes to social deficits in mouse models of autism spectrum disorder

One of the core symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is impaired social interaction. Currently, no pharmacotherapies exist for this symptom due to complex biological underpinnings and distinct genetic models which fail to represent the broad disease spectrum. One convincing hypothesis explaining social deficits in human ASD patients is amotivation, however it is unknown whether mouse models of ASD represent this condition. Here we used two highly trusted ASD mouse models (male Shank3‐deficient [Shank3^+/ΔC] mice modeling the monogenic etiology of ASD, and inbred BTBR mice [both male and female] modeling the idiopathic and highly polygenic pathology for ASD) to evaluate the level of motivation to engage in a social interaction. In the behavioral paradigms utilized, a social stimulus was placed in the open arm of the elevated plus maze (EPM), or the light compartment of the light‐dark box (LDB). To engage in a social interaction, mice were thus required to endure innately aversive conditions (open areas, height, and/or light). In the modified EPM paradigm, both Shank3^+/ΔC and BTBR mice demonstrated decreased open‐arm engagement with a social stimulus but not a novel object, suggesting reduced incentive to engage in a social interaction in these models. However, these deficits were not expressed under the less severe aversive pressures of the LDB. Collectively, we show that ASD mouse models exhibit diminished social interaction incentive, and provide a new investigation strategy facilitating the study of the neurobiological mechanisms underlying social reward and motivation deficits in neuropsychiatric disorders.