Twenty-eight white-throated woodrats (Neotoma albigula) collected in Pima County, Arizona were screened for Leishmania using culture and the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Two rodents were culture positive. Isoenzyme analysis determined the isolates to be Leishmania mexicana. The two culture-positive and four additional rodents were determined to be Leishmania-positive by the PCR. These isola...

Museum skins of the Black-eared Wheatear Oenante hispanica from the eastern Adriatic coast were examined in order to identify subspecies. All 91 examined skins belong to O. h. melanoleuca. Wing lengths (88-96 mm in adult males, 87-93.5 mm in 2nd year males and 84-92 mm in females) are among the longest for this species. The proportion of the black-throated morph was 56.5% in males and 40.9% in ...

Bioturbation occurs in streambeds by the action of a range faunal species, but little is known about how it could modify hyporheic exchange streams. Previous experimental work investigating effects sediment-biota interaction on across sediment-water interface has been largely conducted small mesocosms or infiltration columns that do not represent lotic environment adequately. Therefore, finding...

Negative impacts of gully erosion in marly areas are severe due to improper landuse practices such as irrigation, tillage, overgrazing and degradation of vegetation cover. The objective of this research was to evaluate gully thresholds related to plant vegetation cover and landuse change in the Agriculture (AG), Fair Rangeland (FR) and Weak Rangeland (WR) areas of Ghaasr-e-Shirin, Kermanshah, I...

Because no organism lives in an unchanging environment, sensory processes must remain plastic so that in any context, they emphasize the most relevant signals. As the behavioral relevance of sociosexual signals changes along with reproductive state, the perception of those signals is altered by reproductive hormones such as estradiol (E2). We showed previously that in white-throated sparrows, i...

BACKGROUND Trait polymorphism can evolve as a consequence of frequency-dependent selection. Coevolutionary interactions between hosts and parasites may lead to selection on both to evolve extreme phenotypes deviating from the norm, through disruptive selection. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDING Here, we show through detailed field studies and experimental procedures that the ashy-throated parrotb...

Emberizid sparrows (emberizidae) have played a prominent role in the study of avian vocal communication and social behavior. We present here brain transcriptomes for three emberizid model systems, song sparrow Melospiza melodia, white-throated sparrow Zonotrichia albicollis, and Gambel's white-crowned sparrow Zonotrichia leucophrys gambelii. Each of the assemblies covered fully or in part, over...

Labyrinth spillways are considered as suitable and economic structures because, firstly, their discharge flow rate, under low hydraulic heads, is high, and secondly, they occupy less space. The flow over these spillways is three-dimensional and is influenced by several parameters. This study endeavors to offer a new equation for the calculation of the discharge flow of triangular labyrinth spil...