New larval food plant associations for some butterflies and diurnal moths (Lepidoptera) from the Northern Territory and Kimberley, Australia. Part II

This paper documents 103 Lepidoptera-plant associations for eight families of butterflies/diurnal moths (Castniidae, Immidae, Hesperiidae, Papilionidae, Pieridae, Nymphalidae, Lycaenidae and Noctuidae (Agaristinae)) from the ‘Top End’, central Australia and Kimberley, of which 86 associations are newly recorded for Australia and 17 are newly recorded for the Northern Territory and/or Western Australia. Of particular note are the first recordings of the families Lauraceae for Graphium eurypylus (Papilionidae), Phyllanthaceae for Hypolycaena phorbas (Lycaenidae), and Anacardiaceae for Prosotasdubiosa (Lycaenidae). Sixteen native plant genera are newly recorded for the following genera of Lepidoptera in Australia: Semecarpus (Anacardiaceae) for Prosotas (Lycaenidae), Sarcolobus (Apocynaceae) for Danaus (Nymphalidae), Vitex (Lamiaceae) for Charaxes (Nymphalidae), Bossiaea and Tephrosia (Fabaceae) for Jamides (Lycaenidae), Amyema (Loranthaceae) for Birthana (Immidae), Corymbia (Myrtaceae) for Anthene (Lycaenidae), Aristida and Digitaria (Poaceae) for Hypocysta (Nymphalidae), Chrysopogon and Eriachne (Poaceae) for Pelopidas (Hesperiidae), Mnesithea (Poaceae) for Pelopidas and Telicota (Hesperiidae), Sacciolepis (Poaceae) for Taractrocera (Hesperiidae), Sorghum (Poaceae) for Synemon (Castniidae) and Neohesperilla (Hesperiidae), Whiteochloa for Borbo and Taractrocera (Hesperiidae), and Breynia (Phyllanthaceae) for Hypolycaena (Lycaenidae). The significance of the new plant associations is discussed for the following species: Birthana cleis, Graphium eurypylus, Danaus affinis, Mycalesis sirius, Ogyris amaryllis, Candalides margarita, Famegana alsulus, Euchrysops cnejus and Freyeria putli

Observations on site fidelity in the imperial hairstreak, Jalmenus evagoras (Donovan, 1805) (Lepidoptera: lycaenidae), at Toorourong Reservoir, Victoria

Long-term observations spanning more than 20 years are reported on a breeding colony of Jalmenus evagoras (Donovan) at Toorourong Reservoir, Whittlesea, Victoria. The colony, which is still extant, persisted at this site for at least 21 years (from December 1989 to February 2011) and utilised a 7 m tall tree of Acacia melanoxylon for a minimum of 12 years and a likely maximum of 15-24 years

Atlas of Butterflies and Diurnal Moths in the Monsoon Tropics of Northern Australia

"Northern Australia is one of few tropical places left on Earth in which biodiversity—and the ecological processes underpinning that biodiversity—is still relatively intact. However, scientific knowledge of that biodiversity is still in its infancy and the region remains a frontier for biological discovery. The butterfly and diurnal moth assemblages of the area, and their intimate associations with vascular plants (and sometimes ants), exemplify these points. However, the opportunity to fill knowledge gaps is quickly closing: proposals for substantial development and exploitation of Australia’s north will inevitably repeat the ecological devastation that has occurred in temperate southern Australia—loss of species, loss of ecological communities, fragmentation of populations, disruption of healthy ecosystem function and so on—all of which will diminish the value of the natural heritage of the region before it is fully understood and appreciated. Written by several experts in the field, the main purpose of this atlas is to compile a comprehensive inventory of the butterflies and diurnal moths of northern Australia to form the scientific baseline against which the extent and direction of change can be assessed in the future. Such information will also assist in identifying the region’s biological assets, to inform policy and management agencies and to set priorities for biodiversity conservation.

Resource dispersion, territory size and group size of black-backed jackals on a desert coast

We studied the relationship between resource— food patch—richness and dispersion on group and territory size of black-backed jackals Canis mesomelas in the Namib Desert. Along beaches where food patches are mostly small, widely separated jackal group sizes are small, and territories are narrow and extremely elongated. Where food patches are rich, fairly clumped and also heterogeneous, group sizes are large and territory sizes small. At a superabundant and highly clumped food source—a large seal rookery—group sizes are large, and territoriality is absent. Although jackals feed at the coast and den nearby, individuals move linearly far inland along well-defined footpaths. The marked climatic gradient from the cold coast inland—a drop in wind speed and rise in effective temperature Te – and use of particular paths by different groups—strongly suggests that these movements are for thermoregulatory reasons only.Universities of Stellenbosch and Pretoria and the National Research Foundationhttp://link.springer.com/journal/13364hb2014mn201

Setback distances as a conservation tool in wildlife-human interactions : testing their efficacy for birds affected by vehicles on open-coast sandy beaches

In some wilderness areas, wildlife encounter vehicles disrupt their behaviour and habitat use. Changing driver behaviour has been proposed where bans on vehicle use are politically unpalatable, but the efficacy of vehicle setbacks and reduced speeds remains largely untested. We characterised bird-vehicle encounters in terms of driver behaviour and the disturbance caused to birds, and tested whether spatial buffers or lower speeds reduced bird escape responses on open beaches. Focal observations showed that: i) most drivers did not create sizeable buffers between their vehicles and birds; ii) bird disturbance was frequent; and iii) predictors of probability of flushing (escape) were setback distance and vehicle type (buses flushed birds at higher rates than cars). Experiments demonstrated that substantial reductions in bird escape responses required buffers to be wide (> 25 m) and vehicle speeds to be slow (< 30 km h-1). Setback distances can reduce impacts on wildlife, provided that they are carefully designed and derived from empirical evidence. No speed or distance combination we tested, however, eliminated bird responses. Thus, while buffers reduce response rates, they are likely to be much less effective than vehicle-free zones (i.e. beach closures), and rely on changes to current driver behaviou

Setback distances as a conservation tool in wildlife-human interactions : testing their efficacy for birds affected by vehicles on open-coast sandy beaches

In some wilderness areas, wildlife encounter vehicles disrupt their behaviour and habitat use. Changing driver behaviour has been proposed where bans on vehicle use are politically unpalatable, but the efficacy of vehicle setbacks and reduced speeds remains largely untested. We characterised bird-vehicle encounters in terms of driver behaviour and the disturbance caused to birds, and tested whether spatial buffers or lower speeds reduced bird escape responses on open beaches. Focal observations showed that: i) most drivers did not create sizeable buffers between their vehicles and birds; ii) bird disturbance was frequent; and iii) predictors of probability of flushing (escape) were setback distance and vehicle type (buses flushed birds at higher rates than cars). Experiments demonstrated that substantial reductions in bird escape responses required buffers to be wide (> 25 m) and vehicle speeds to be slow (< 30 km h-1). Setback distances can reduce impacts on wildlife, provided that they are carefully designed and derived from empirical evidence. No speed or distance combination we tested, however, eliminated bird responses. Thus, while buffers reduce response rates, they are likely to be much less effective than vehicle-free zones (i.e. beach closures), and rely on changes to current driver behaviou

Twenty-One Days of Lunar Environment Alters Muscle Fiber Areas in Mouse Gastrocnemius

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The Potent Respiratory System of Osedax mucofloris (Siboglinidae, Annelida) - A Prerequisite for the Origin of Bone-Eating Osedax?

Members of the conspicuous bone-eating genus, Osedax, are widely distributed on whale falls in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. These gutless annelids contain endosymbiotic heterotrophic bacteria in a branching root system embedded in the bones of vertebrates, whereas a trunk and anterior palps extend into the surrounding water. The unique life style within a bone environment is challenged by the high bacterial activity on, and within, the bone matrix possibly causing O2 depletion, and build-up of potentially toxic sulphide. We measured the O2 distribution around embedded Osedax and showed that the bone microenvironment is anoxic. Morphological studies showed that ventilation mechanisms in Osedax are restricted to the anterior palps, which are optimized for high O2 uptake by possessing a large surface area, large surface to volume ratio, and short diffusion distances. The blood vascular system comprises large vessels in the trunk, which facilitate an ample supply of oxygenated blood from the anterior crown to a highly vascularised root structure. Respirometry studies of O. mucofloris showed a high O2 consumption that exceeded the average O2 consumption of a broad line of resting annelids without endosymbionts. We regard this combination of features of the respiratory system of O. mucofloris as an adaptation to their unique nutrition strategy with roots embedded in anoxic bones and elevated O2 demand due to aerobic heterotrophic endosymbionts

A global phylogeny of butterflies reveals their evolutionary history, ancestral hosts and biogeographic origins

Butterflies are a diverse and charismatic insect group that are thought to have evolved with plants and dispersed throughout the world in response to key geological events. However, these hypotheses have not been extensively tested because a comprehensive phylogenetic framework and datasets for butterfly larval hosts and global distributions are lacking. We sequenced 391 genes from nearly 2,300 butterfly species, sampled from 90 countries and 28 specimen collections, to reconstruct a new phylogenomic tree of butterflies representing 92% of all genera. Our phylogeny has strong support for nearly all nodes and demonstrates that at least 36 butterfly tribes require reclassification. Divergence time analyses imply an origin similar to 100 million years ago for butterflies and indicate that all but one family were present before the K/Pg extinction event. We aggregated larval host datasets and global distribution records and found that butterflies are likely to have first fed on Fabaceae and originated in what is now the Americas. Soon after the Cretaceous Thermal Maximum, butterflies crossed Beringia and diversified in the Palaeotropics. Our results also reveal that most butterfly species are specialists that feed on only one larval host plant family. However, generalist butterflies that consume two or more plant families usually feed on closely related plants

Conservation status and management of the Gove Crow Euploea alcathoe enastri (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), a threatened tropical butterfly from the indigenous Aboriginal lands of north-eastern Arnhem Land, Australia

The Gove Crow butterfly, Euploea alcathoe enastri Fenner, 1991, is restricted to Gove Peninsula of north-eastern Arnhem Land, a remote area of northern Australia. The subspecies has been listed as an Endangered taxon under federal and Northern Territory legislation, and represents one of only a few cases in the Australian Region in which a tropical butterfly has been targeted for species-orientated conservation. However, accurate status evaluation and conservation management have been hampered by lack of detailed information on spatial distribution, critical habitat, and the extent and severity of threatening processes. Surveys carried out during 2006-2008 indicate that the subspecies has a limited geographical range (extent of occurrence approximately 6,700 km2) within which it is recorded from 11 locations or subpopulations embracing a total of 21 sites. Most sites comprise discrete habitat patches that are relatively small in area (<10 ha) within which adults are localised and occur in low abundance (<15 h-1). Of the four major habitat types in which E. alcathoe enastri was detected, only mixed paperbark tall open forest with rainforest elements in the understorey and rainforest edge (i.e. the ecotone between evergreen monsoon vine-forest and eucalypt/paperbark woodland) comprise breeding habitats. These habitat patches were always associated with permanent creeks or perennial groundwater seepages or springs that form swamplands, usually along drainage lines or flood plains in coastal or near coastal lowland areas. Major threats identified at the site level are habitat modification through altered fire regime and habitat disturbance by feral animals (buffalo, pig); potential threats at the landscape level include habitat loss through invasive species (grassy weeds, tramp ants) and global climate change. However, since critical breeding areas are subject to natural disturbance by both fire and flood, and occasionally cyclonic events, an optimal balance in disturbance regime is probably required to sustain breeding populations. Although E. alcathoe enastri is a narrow-range endemic that is ecologically specialised, there is no evidence of decline. Accordingly, the conservation status of the subspecies should be regarded as Near Threatened ('Conservation Dependent') under IUCN criteria. Components for an effective long-term conservation management plan of the butterfly and its habitat, which largely depend on the cooperation of traditional landowners and involvement of local indigenous ranger groups, are briefly discussed