We tested three species of praying mantis, Parasphendale affinis, Popa spurca and Sphodromantis lineola, with computer-generated stimuli that differed in size, contrast, configuration and movement pattern to determine the effects of these parameters on visual tracking and striking behavior. Overall, black disks moving erratically against a white background were strong releasers of both behavior...

We have constructed restriction-site maps of the mtDNAs in 13 species and one subspecies of the Drosophila obscura group. The traditional division of this group into two subgroups (affinis and obscura) does not correspond to the phylogeny of the group, which shows two well-defined clusters (the Nearctic affinis and pseudoobscura subgroups) plus a very heterogeneous set of anciently diverged spe...

One hundred specimens of unicorn leatherjacket, Aluterus monoceros purchased from markets of municipalities of Niterói and Rio de Janeiro from May to August 2006. The fishes were measured, necropsied, fileted and analysed their organs. Sixteen fishes were parasitized by nematode Anisakidae: Anisakis spp. and Contracaecum sp. with respectively, 1 and 16% of prevalence, 2 and 3.31 of mean intensi...

Invertebrates were collected and identified from the stomach contents of eight mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) populations in the northern Waikato region of New Zealand at 3-month intervals from December 1994 to September 1995. To investigate temporal and spatial patterns in dietary composition a novel analysis programme was created that used Gower's similarity coefficient. The analysis found d...

This paper describes three species of the genus Tripyla from New Zealand and provides a key to species based on the morphology of females. Tripyla daviesae sp. nov. is characterized by its short body length (L = 1143-1363 μm), relatively anterior vulva (V = 50-51%), and the length of the gubernaculum (13-17 μm). Tripyla tirau sp. nov. is characterized by its relatively posterior vulva (V = 55.5...

Five insect biological control agents that attack flower heads of spotted knapweed, Centaurea stoebe L. subsp. micranthos (Gugler) Hayek, became established in western Montana between 1973 and 1992. In a controlled field experiment in 2006, seed-head insects reduced spotted knapweed seed production per seed head by 84.4%. The seed production at two sites in western Montana where these biologica...

Antibiotics are a relatively common disturbance to the normal microbiota of humans and agricultural animals, sometimes resulting in severe side effects such as antibiotic-associated enterocolitis. Gambusia affinis was used as a vertebrate model for effects of a broad-spectrum antibiotic, rifampicin, on the skin and gut mucosal microbiomes. The fish were exposed to the antibiotic in the water co...