The highly diverse and endemic Pacific island biota is disappearing and being replaced by a relatively small number of widespread alien species. The land snail fauna of Samoa (formerly Western Samoa) contains at least 72 species (58 native, 10 alien, four cryptogenic—of unknown origin). In 1992–1994 we surveyed the fauna in order to evaluate its status and, by comparison with previous surveys, ...

Identification of invasion hotspots that support multiple invasive alien species (IAS) is a pre-requisite for control and management of invasion. However, till recently it remained a methodological challenge to precisely determine such invasive hotspots. We identified the hotspots of alien species invasion in India through Ecological Niche Modelling (ENM) using species occurrence data from the ...

The alien hand syndrome, as originally defined, should be reserved for cases in which the hand feels foreign "together with" observable involuntary motor activity. These involuntary movements are unusual during or after acute stroke. Three varieties of alien hand syndrome have been reported, involving lesions of the corpus callosum alone, the corpus callosum plus dominant medial frontal cortex,...

August 2006 | Volume 4 | Issue 8 | e279 Almost daily, we can read newspaper articles voicing concerns about alien species and their impacts on native biodiversity, economic resources, and human health. Alien or non-native species introductions by humans rank as one of the two top factors (after habitat loss) leading to declines in biological diversity [1]. Their synergistic effects with changes...

Chalcid wasps (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) are probably the most effective and abundant parasitoids of the horse chestnut leaf miner (Cameraria ohridella), an alien pest in Europe that lacks specialized enemies. We studied how the species richness and abundance of chalcids are influenced by altitude, direction of an alien spread and host abundance of C. ohridella. We quantified the numbers and s...

Biological invasion is one of the most threatening factors for biodiversity conservation. Lacking information on alien species in certain regions of the world hampers a balanced understanding of invasion processes and efficient data exchange among stakeholders. Current knowledge gaps are in need of urgent concern. We therefore conducted a review on alien animals in Xinjiang, an unknown region o...

Alien control phenomena are symptoms reported by patients with schizophrenia whereby feelings of control and ownership of thoughts and movements are lost. Comparable alien control experiences occur in culturally influenced dissociative states. We used fMRI and suggestions for automatic writing in highly hypnotically suggestible individuals to investigate the neural underpinnings of alien contro...

Alien reptiles and amphibians have been relatively little studied compared to other classes of vertebrates. This appears largely due to the fact that most species are cryptic and difficult to notice and because they do not often directly impact humans or their domesticated animals. I compiled a global database of alien reptile and amphibian introductions (with an “introduction” being the human ...

Our understanding of the interrelated mechanisms driving plant invasions, such as the interplay between enemy release and resource-acquisition traits, is biased by an aboveground perspective. To address this bias, I hypothesize that plant release from belowground enemies (especially fungal pathogens) will give invasive plant species a fitness advantage in the alien range, via shifts in root tra...

Enemy release is frequently posed as a main driver of invasiveness of alien species. However, an experimental multi-species test examining performance and herbivory of invasive alien, non-invasive alien and native plant species in the presence and absence of natural enemies is lacking. In a common garden experiment in Switzerland, we manipulated exposure of seven alien invasive, eight alien non...