Parental care entails physiological costs to the mother. These costs, even if dramatic, are usually reversible and do not result in mortality of the mother. In the spider Stegodyphus lineatus Latreille 1817 (Eresidae), maternal care is extreme and irreversible: mothers regurgitate food for the young and then die when consumed by them (matriphagy). We examined whether the mother’s midgut tissues...

Although retinoids have been reported to be present and active in vertebrates and invertebrates, the presence of mechanisms for retinoid storage in the form of retinyl esters, a key feature to maintain whole-organism retinoid homeostasis, have been considered to date a vertebrate innovation. Here we demonstrate for the first time the presence of retinol and retinyl esters in an invertebrate lop...

The aim of the research is to determine macro (Ca, Mg, P and K), micro (Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn Be) element heavy metal (Al, Cr, Ni, Se Cd) contents some Astragalus taxa collected from nature. Nine (Astragalus gummifer, A. compactus, lineatus var. longidens, aureus, onobrychis, declinatus, lineatus, oocephalus subsp. stachyophorus, inereus) natural areas Bingöl province were used as plant material resea...

Abstract This work was carried out in order to provide the length-weight relationship (LWR) and allometric condition factor (Ka), as well its correlation with limnological variables, for Prochilodus lineatus from middle Tietê River basin. Fish were collected using gill nets two rivers contrasting environmental conditions, totaling 46 specimens highly polluted River, 37 Peixe a relatively well-c...

Group living carries a price: it inherently entails increased competition for resources and reproduction, and may also be associated with mating among relatives, which carries costs of inbreeding. Nonetheless, group living and sociality is found in many animals, and understanding the direct and indirect benefits of cooperation that override the inherent costs remains a challenge in evolutionary...

The present work described helminth parasites of curimbatá, Prochilodus lineatus Valenciennes, 1836 from Volta Grande Reservoir, MG, Brazil. Eighteen fishes with average 46.7 +/- 1.1 cm length and 1,674.8 +/- 75.6 g weight were collected. Of the analysed fishes, 15 were parasitized with acanthocephalans in the intestine, showing a prevalence of 83.3%. The helminth was identified as Neoechinorhy...

The fish genus Siganus (Siganidae) is widely distributed in the coastal habitats of all the tropical Indo-Pacific, with 28 nominal species recognized so far, based on general morphology and coloration patterns. A mitochondrial phylogeny of 16 Siganidae species, based on the partial nucleotide sequences of the cytochome b gene, was produced. Individual haplotypes of given nominal species general...

The fish stocking in captivity for later release into natural water bodies has historically been applied in Brazil, as a measure to mitigate impacts caused by dams. However, the released fish are adapted to the hatchery environment, which is totally different from the natural, which results in low post-release survival rates and ineffectiveness of stocking as a management measure. Worldwide, se...

The circumtropical gobiid genus Bathygobius Bleeker is defined and three Eastern Pacific species are redescribed, with first dorsal fin pattern and postorbital blotches being shown to be additional characters of diagnostic value. Two mainland species are recognised, the Mexican-Panamanian B. ramosus Ginsburg 1947 and the Panamanian B. andrei (Sauvage 1880). B. ramosus is now reported from Clari...

The purpose of this work was to verify the ability of the enzyme Alu I to cleave and/or remove satellite DNA sequences from heterochromatic regions in chromosomes of bats, by identifying the occurrence of modifications in the pattern of fluorescence in situ hybridization with telomeric DNA. The localization and fluorescence intensity of the telomeric DNA sites of the Alu-digested and undigested...