Sexual Signalling in Propithecus verreauxi: Male “Chest Badge” and Female Mate Choice

Communication, an essential prerequisite for sociality, involves the transmission of signals. A signal can be defined as any action or trait produced by one animal, the sender, that produces a change in the behaviour of another animal, the receiver. Secondary sexual signals are often used for mate choice because they may inform on a potential partner's quality. Verreaux's sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi) is characterized by the presence of two different morphs of males (bimorphism), which can show either a stained or clean chest. The chest becomes stained by secretions of the sternal gland during throat marking (rubbing throat and chest on a vertical substrate while smearing the scent deposition). The role of the chest staining in guiding female mate choice was previously hypothesized but never demonstrated probably due to the difficulty of observing sifaka copulations in the wild. Here we report that stained-chested males had a higher throat marking activity than clean-chested males during the mating season, but not during the birth season. We found that females copulated more frequently with stained-chested males than the clean-chested males. Finally, in agreement with the biological market theory, we found that clean-chested males, with a lower scent-releasing potential, offered more grooming to females. This “grooming for sex” tactic was not completely unsuccessful; in fact, half of the clean-chested males copulated with females, even though at low frequency. In conclusion, the chest stain, possibly correlated with different cues targeted by females, could be one of the parameters which help females in selecting mates

Demography and Life Histories of Sympatric Patas Monkeys, Erythrocebus patas, and Vervets, Cercopithecus aethiops, in Laikipia, Kenya

Mortality patterns are thought to be strong selective forces on life history traits, with high adult mortality and low immature mortality favoring early and rapid reproduction. Patas monkeys (Erythrocebus patas) have the highest potential rates of population increase for their body size of any haplorhine primate because they reproduce both earlier and more often. We report here 10 yr of comparative demographic data on a population of patas monkeys and a sympatric population of vervet monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops), a closely related species differing in aspects of social system, ecology, and life history. The data reveal that 1) adult female patas monkeys have significantly higher mortality than adult female vervets; 2) infant mortality in patas monkeys is relatively low compared to the norm for mammals because it is not significantly different from that of adult female patas monkeys; and 3) infant mortality is significantly higher than adult female mortality in vervets. For both species, much of the mortality could be attributed to predation. An epidemic illness was also a major contributor to the mortality of adult female patas monkeys whereas chronic exposure to pathogens in a cold and damp microenvironment may have contributed to the mortality of infant vervets. Both populations experienced large fluctuations during the study period. Our results support the prediction from demographic models of life history evolution that high adult mortality relative to immature mortality selects for early maturation

Neutral pion cross section and spin asymmetries at intermediate pseudorapidity in polarized proton collisions at √s = 200 GeV

The differential cross section and spin asymmetries for neutral pions produced within the intermediate pseudorapidity range 0.8 < η < 2.0 in polarized proton-proton collisions at √s = 200  GeV are presented. Neutral pions were detected using the end cap electromagnetic calorimeter in the STAR detector at RHIC. The cross section was measured over a transverse momentum range of 5 < p[subscript T] < 16  GeV/c and is found to agree with a next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculation. The longitudinal double-spin asymmetry A[subscript LL] is measured in the same pseudorapidity range and spans a range of Bjorken-x down to x ≈ 0.01. The measured A[subscript LL] is consistent with model predictions for varying degrees of gluon polarization. The parity-violating asymmetry A[subscript L] is also measured and found to be consistent with zero. The transverse single-spin asymmetry A[subscript N] is measured over a previously unexplored kinematic range in Feynman-x and p[subscript T]. Such measurements may aid our understanding of the onset and kinematic dependence of the large asymmetries observed at more forward pseudorapidity (η ≈ 3) and their underlying mechanisms. The A[subscript N] results presented are consistent with a twist-3 model prediction of a small asymmetry over the present kinematic range.United States. Dept. of Energy. Office of Nuclear PhysicsUnited States. Dept. of Energy. Office of High Energy PhysicsNational Science Foundation (U.S.

Data for: Temperature and body mass drive earthworm (Eisenia fetida) sensitivity to a popular glyphosate-based herbicide

raw data for determining the impact of soil temperature and initial body mass on earthworm sensitivity to Roundup Ready to Us

Data for: Sound Repetition Rate Controls the Duration of Tonic Immobility in Chicks (Gallus gallus)

Column names reflect the treatment types. They describe the sounds that the chicks listened to while playing dead. The numbers within the rows reflect the number of minutes that the chicks played dead. Each experiment is recorded on a separate Excel sheet

Data for: Sound Repetition Rate Controls the Duration of Tonic Immobility in Chicks (Gallus gallus)

Column names reflect the treatment types. They describe the sounds that the chicks listened to while playing dead. The numbers within the rows reflect the number of minutes that the chicks played dead. Each experiment is recorded on a separate Excel sheet.THIS DATASET IS ARCHIVED AT DANS/EASY, BUT NOT ACCESSIBLE HERE. TO VIEW A LIST OF FILES AND ACCESS THE FILES IN THIS DATASET CLICK ON THE DOI-LINK ABOV

Data for: Temperature and body mass drive earthworm (Eisenia fetida) sensitivity to a popular glyphosate-based herbicide

raw data for determining the impact of soil temperature and initial body mass on earthworm sensitivity to Roundup Ready to UseTHIS DATASET IS ARCHIVED AT DANS/EASY, BUT NOT ACCESSIBLE HERE. TO VIEW A LIST OF FILES AND ACCESS THE FILES IN THIS DATASET CLICK ON THE DOI-LINK ABOV

Glyphosate but not Roundup harm earthworms

Dependent variables for worms include: body mass, stress-test survival time, and mortality. Dependent variables for microbes include: microbe biomass, fungal biomass, the difference between initial and final biomass for microbes and fungus. Independent variables include treatment: exposure to Roundup Ready to Use, Roundup Superconcentrate, pure glyphosate, and nothing. Additional variables include tank number. Each treatment had three replicates and those are reflected in tank number