Measurement of evolutionary adaptations of a visual system to its visual and operational ecology requires comparison of visual function in different species with similar morphologies and visual ecologies, occupying the same habitats but displaying differences in visually-guided behavior. The goal here was to document the biophysical properties of photoreceptors in the lesser water boatman Corix...

Various bioactive compounds possessing the properties as antioxidant, antibacterial, antifungal, antimutagenic and anticancerous have been characterized and isolated from different parts of plants. Some studies in recent years have reported the occurrence of such bioactive compounds in pollen grains as well. Considering this, the present study was planned to examine antitumor activities of etha...

Anabasine occurring in wild tree tobacco (Nicotiana glauca) and anabaseine occurring in certain animal venoms are nicotinic receptor agonist toxins. Anabasine lacks the imine double bond of anabaseine; the two possible enantiomers of anabasine occur in N. glauca. A comparision of the relative potencies of S- and R-anabasine has not been previously reported. We separated the enantiomers of anaba...

Large pelagic fishes are top predators inhabiting the water column of the tropical and subtropical Pacific Ocean. They are highly migratory organisms, and for Ecuadorian fisheries, they also represent important economic resources. We sampled 4 shark species, Prionace glauca, Isurus oxyrinchus, Carcharhinus falciformis and Alopias pelagicus, and 3 billfish species, Xiphias gladius, Istiophorus p...

Flowering plant density can increase number of visits and fruit set in multi-flowering plants, however this aspect has not been studied on few flower species. We studied the effects of individual floral display and plant density on the fruit production of the epiphytic, moth-pollinated orchid, Ryncholaelia glauca, in an oak forest of Chavarrillo, Veracruz, Mexico. Species is non-autogamous, and...

In the present study, antioxidant activity of methanolic extracts of the leaves of seven Egyptian Cassia species was investigated using two methods, the phosphomolyb-date method and 1,1 diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical (DPPH) scavenging activity method.· The results revealed that C. glauca is the most potent species and that the activity of other plant species decreases in the following order:...

The chromosomes of 15 species of Iridaceae of the genera Alophia, Cipura, Eleutherine, Neomarica and Trimezia (subfamily Iridoideae) were examined after conventional Giemsa staining. The karyotypes of Alophia drummondii (2n = 14+1B, 28, 42 and 56), Cipura paludosa (2n = 14), C. xanthomelas (2n = 28) and Eleutherine bulbosa (2n = 12) were asymmetric; Neomarica candida, N. caerulea, N. humilis, N...