Status of the subfamily names Charipinae and Alloxystinae (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae)

Abstract. The Alloxystinae (= Allotriinae) comprises three genera ( Alloxysta, Phaenoglyphis and Lytoxysta ) of secondary parasites on aphids. Charipinae comprises a single monobasic genus ( Dilyta # Charips = Glyptoxysta ), a primary parasite of a psyllid. The relevant subfamily and generic synonymies are listed. Lectotypes are designated for Dilyta subclavata Förster and Charips microcera Haliday which are newly placed in synonymy.     

Stentorceps, a remarkable new genus of eucoilid (Hymenoptera) from Africa

Abstract. Stentorceps tubicen , a new genus and species of Eucoilidae from East Africa, is described and illustrated. The genus is characterized by the possession of large protrusions on the face, features previously unknown in the family. The genus is compared with other eucoilids and its systematic position is discussed.     

Two new genera of Eucoilidae (Hymenoptera: Cynipoidea)

Psichacra marshalli Cameron is redescribed and assigned to the new genus Pseudopsichacra. ‘New Genus B’ of Weld is redescribed as Bewelda gen.n. and striata sp.n. is designated as the type–species. An emendation of Weld's key is included to show the positions of both genera.     

Gender and Risk in a Matrifocal Caribbean Community: A View from Behavioral Ecology

Matrifocality is a feature of Caribbean communities in which mothers and adult daughters often form the household core. I argue that daughter-biased parental care underlies matrifocality. Parental investment (PI) theory predicts sex-biased care, but factors promoting daughter preference are not always clearly specified. If sons are more likely than daughters to experience unpredictable hazards, then parents may bias their efforts toward daughters. In this study, I examine gender differences in rural Dominica and test PI predictions. Men were more likely to be poor and develop alcoholism and less likely to migrate or attend high school than women were. Educational outcomes showed a Trivers-Willard effect: Boys from unfavorable family environments were less likely to receive secondary education than were other boys, but there was no association for girls. PI variables generally accounted for less variance in men's outcomes than women's, suggesting that unpredictable hazards for sons may promote daughter preference and matrifocality.     

Aspects of the symbiosis of the leaf-cutting ant Acromyrmex octospinosus (Reich) and its food fungus

Abstract. 1. Laboratory ants preferred eating whole ant fungus staphylae to hyphae, and did not feed on other fungi. Homogenized ant fungus staphylae and hyphae were equally acceptable liquid food but other homogenized fungi were not drunk extensively.
2. Various arthropod fungjvores preferred to feed on ant fungus rather than any other fungus tested. Some preferred hyphae to staphylae, some vice versa and others had no preference.
3. The ants attacked animals on the nest and reduced the numbers of fungivores on the fungus garden.
4. The ant fungus grew best at 24.5°C and hardly at all at 10°C or 37°C.
5. The ants did not necessarily choose material which supported the best fungus growth in sterile culture and readily accepted substrates on which the fungus did not grow at all. No learning behaviour was noted.
6. The ant X fungus symbiosis is discussed as an example of co-evolution, a product of an evolutionary feedback. The ant is supplied with a highly nutritious, readily acceptable food source in return for complex fungus-culture behaviour, providing protection from fungivores and competition from other saprophytic fungi.     

The extant Chaoborus assemblage can be assessed using subfossil mandibles

1. Assemblages of Chaoborus were examined in 80 thermally stratified southern central Canadian Shield lakes to explore whether subfossil mandibles could be useful in assemblage‐level studies of Chaoborus. 2. Chaoborus (Sayomyia) (probably Chaoborus punctipennis in this study region) and Chaoborus flavicans were the most common taxa recorded, while Chaoborus trivittatus was rarer. Chaoborus americanus was not recorded in subfossil assemblages, because no fishless lakes were included in this study. Chaoborus flavicans had higher relative abundances (%) in lakes with higher dissolved organic carbon (DOC), probably because of reduced fish predation in less transparent water. 3. Results from logistic regression indicate that patterns of presence/absence for Chaoborus mandibles in the study lakes were influenced primarily by hypolimnetic oxygen concentration, probably because of the presence or extent of a hypolimnetic refugium from fish predation. 4. Chaoborus species richness in lakes, derived from subfossil assemblages, did not differ significantly from species richness estimates derived from plankton sampling with a net. Patterns of dominance and coexistence [e.g. the widespread co‐occurrence of C. flavicans and C. (Sayomyia)] determined from subfossil assemblages agreed with previous studies of the contemporary living assemblage. 5. These results suggest that subfossil assemblages may be used as an alternative to nocturnal plankton sampling to carry out research on the community ecology of Chaoborus. 6. We propose a hierarchical conceptual model of assemblage‐level patterns of Chaoborus in temperate lakes. Chaoborus americanus dominates in fishless lakes, whereas in lakes with fish Chaoborus is typically absent where there is no anoxic hyplimnion. In lakes with anoxic strata, C. trivittatus tends to dominate in lakes with few fish; in the remaining lakes, C. flavicans and C. (Sayomyia) dominate, although C. flavicans is more relatively abundant in lakes with lower water clarity (higher DOC).     

Parenting and Cultures of Risk: A Comparative Analysis of Infidelity, Aggression, and Witchcraft

Parenting behavior may respond flexibly to environmental risk to help prepare children for the environment they can expect to face as adults. In hazardous environments where child outcomes are unpredictable, unresponsive parenting could be adaptive. Child development associated with parenting practices, in turn, may influence cultural patterns related to insecurity and aggression (which we call the "risk-response model"). We test these propositions in a cross-cultural analysis. The Standard Cross-Cultural Sample (SCCS) includes indicators of parental responsiveness: father–infant sleeping proximity, father involvement, parental response to infant crying, and breastfeeding duration (age at weaning). Unresponsive parenting was associated with cultural models including greater acceptance of extramarital sex, aggression, theft, and witchcraft. Socialization practices in later childhood were not better predictors of the outcomes than was earlier parenting. We conclude that some cultural adaptations appear rooted in parenting practices that affect child development.     

The role of ocelli in circadian singing rhythms of crickets

ABSTRACT. . There is a direct quantitative relationship between the free-running period (r) of the circadian stridulation rhythm of male Australian field crickets, Teleogryllus commodus (Walker), and the intensity of the constant light conditions. Both T. commodus and the house cricket, Acheta domesticus (L.), show free-running periods of the singing rhythm of c. 24 h when the light intensity is 0.00025 lux. In both species the severance of the three ocellar nerves significantly slows the circadian period which is indicative of a reduced perception of the available light intensity. To test whether this period reduction is a peripheral or a central effect, electro-retinograms (ERGs) were recorded from compound eyes of male T. commodus with the ocelli fully functional, then occluded, and then uncovered. The size of the compound eye ERG is reduced by 20% with ocellar occlusion and can subsequently be fully restored to the intact level, which indicates that the ocellar effect is a peripheral one. Intensified CoCl₂ fills reveal one neurone in A. domesticus and two in T. commodus which travel from the lateral ocellar nerve out into the ipsilateral optic lobe of the compound eye. These neurones all terminate in or distal to the lobular neuropile. The data are interpreted to indicate a role for ocelli in modulating the light intensity perception of the compound eye. The final effect of the ocellar afferents is at a peripheral level prior to the input of the visual information to the optic lobe circadian pacemaker. Hence ocelli play an indirect role in circadian rhythmicity, augmenting the sensitivity of the primary photoreceptors to better perceive photic entrainment signals.