Frederick Pirani, M.H.R. Palmerston North, 1893-1902 : a study of his political career : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History at Massey University

This thesis is concerned with the political career of F. Pirani, who represented the Palmerston North electorate from 1894 to 1902. Pirani entered the House a liberal, but within a few years was in strong disagreement with the Liberal government on several issues, so in 1896 he stood as an independent liberal. From 1898 Pirani believed a change of government would be to New Zealand's advantage, and in 1902 he was an opposition candidate. Despite this transformation in political colours only on the land question was there a major change in Pirani's views in the years he was in the House. This at first sight is contradictory, and this thesis, by a detailed study of Pirani's political career and beliefs, is intended to clarify this situation. It is also hoped that the thesis would be a first step in the analysis of local Manawatu politics in the latter part of the nineteenth-century. Other regions, for example Canterbury, Taranaki and the Waikato, have been studied in depth, but the Manawatu's timing and pattern of development was, it is suggested, unique, and this alone suggests that a study of its local politics would prove fruitful to those considering the wider picture. The value, and the limitation, of a thesis are considerably determined by the methodology and the sources used. Sources are to an extent independent of methodology, but methodology frequently determines both the way and the extent to which different sources are used. The politics of the Canterbury region for the period 1870-1890 has been studied in detail in a number of theses. In all cases the theses were concerned with local politics usually with only a single election and hence a heavy reliance was placed upon local newspapers, and a booth-by-booth analysis of election results. This led Bohan, 1 in particular, to the conclusion that party played no role in the politics of the period. Millar 2 believed that the polling-booth method did not allow issues their due, and Evans pointed out that "there is no getting away from the fact that on some issues a two-party division existed, and in parliament with much more certainty than in the electorates." 3 I believe the comments of Millar and Evans to be very important, and I have therefore attempted to explain in detail Pirani's career at both the national and local level, and also the influence that each had on the other. 4 Because of this I believe the result is a better building block towards a more complete understanding of the politics of the period than would otherwise be the case. [FROM INTRODUCTION

Predation on epigeic, endogeic and anecic earthworms by carabids active in spring and autumn

Background and purpose:Generalist predatory carabid beetles have an important role in controlling the abundance of various prey species within ecosystems, including certain pests. In terms of bio-control, these unspecialised predators may be sustained in the field when pest populations are low by predating on other animals such as earthworms. The aim of this study was to reveal patterns in predation by beetles, represented by the carabid community in the field, on different earthworm species with respect to anecic, endogeic and epigeic earthworm ecotypes.Materials and methods:We utilised DNA extracted from the gut content of 23 carabid species to reveal predation on earthworms directly in the field, considering spring and autumn aspects. The extracted DNA from each carabid species collected in the field was then screened using PCR with earthworm species-specific primers.Results and discussion:After screening the carabids using five earthworm species-specific primer pairs, 20 species, including 53% of all tested individual beetles, were positive for earthworms, with similar proportions in the spring and autumn samples and between the sexes. Earthworms from all three ecotypes were confirmed within the predator guts and were widely consumed within the carabid community.Conclusions:These results suggest that predation on earthworms might be an important mechanism sustaining populations of generalist predatory carabids in the field, which can be advantageous for biological control. Therefore, non-conventional management should be improved to maintain the three ecotypes of the earthworm community as prey for beneficial predatory carabids.</p

Do functional traits improve prediction of predation rates for a disparate group of aphid predators?

Aphid predators are a systematically disparate group of arthropods united on the basis that they consume aphids as part of their diet. In Europe, this group includes Araneae, Opiliones, Heteroptera, chrysopids, Forficulina, syrphid larvae, carabids, staphylinids, cantharids and coccinellids. This functional group has no phylogenetic meaning but was created by ecologists as a way of understanding predation, particularly for conservation biological control. We investigated whether trait-based approaches could bring some cohesion and structure to this predator group. A taxonomic hierarchy-based null model was created from taxonomic distances in which a simple multiplicative relationship described the Linnaean hierarchies (species, genera, etc.) of fifty common aphid predators. Using the same fifty species, a functional groups model was developed using ten behavioural traits (e.g. polyphagy, dispersal, activity, etc.) to describe the way in which aphids were predated in the field. The interrelationships between species were then expressed as dissimilarities within each model and separately analysed using PROXSCAL, a multidimensional scaling (MDS) program. When ordinated using PROXSCAL and then statistically compared using Procrustes analysis, we found that only 17% of information was shared between the two configurations. Polyphagy across kingdoms (i.e. predatory behaviour across animal, plant and fungi kingdoms) and the ability to withstand starvation over days, weeks and months were particularly divisive within the functional groups model. Confirmatory MDS indicated poor prediction of aphid predation rates by the configurations derived from either model. The counterintuitive conclusion was that the inclusion of functional traits, pertinent to the way in which predators fed on aphids, did not lead to a large improvement in the prediction of predation rate when compared to the standard taxonomic approach

Molecular evidence for gender differences in the migratory behaviour of a small seabird

Molecular sexing revealed an unexpectedly strong female bias in the sex ratio of pre-breeding European Storm Petrels (Hydrobates pelagicus), attracted to playback of conspecific calls during their northwards migration past SW Europe. This bias was consistent across seven years, ranging from 80.8% to 89.7% female (mean annual sex ratio ± SD = 85.5% female ±4.1%). The sex ratio did not differ significantly from unity (i.e., 50% female) among (i) Storm Petrel chicks at a breeding colony in NW France, (ii) adults found dead on beaches in Southern Portugal, (iii) breeding birds attending nest burrows in the UK, captured by hand, and (iv) adults captured near a breeding colony in the UK using copies of the same sound recordings as used in Southern Europe, indicating that females are not inherently more strongly attracted to playback calls than males. A morphological discriminant function analysis failed to provide a good separation of the sexes, showing the importance of molecular sexing for this species. We found no sex difference in the seasonal or nocturnal timing of migration past Southern Europe, but there was a significant tendency for birds to be caught in sex-specific aggregations. The preponderance of females captured in Southern Europe suggests that the sexes may differ in migration route or in their colony-prospecting behaviour during migration, at sites far away from their natal colonies. Such differences in migration behaviour between males and females are poorly understood but have implications for the vulnerability of seabirds to pollution and environmental change at sea during the non-breeding season

Estimation of trophic niches in myrmecophagous spider predators

Among spiders, taxonomically the most diversified group of terrestrial predators, only a few species are stenophagous and feed on ants. The levels of stenophagy and ant-specialisation vary among such species. To investigate whether stenophagy is only a result of a local specialisation both fundamental and realised trophic niches need to be estimated. Here we investigated trophic niches in three closely-related spider species from the family Gnaphosidae (Callilepis nocturna, C. schuszteri, Nomisia exornata) with different levels of myrmecophagy. Acceptance experiments were used to estimate fundamental trophic niches and molecular methods to estimate realised trophic niches. For the latter two PCR primer sets were used as these can affect the niche breadth estimates. The general invertebrate ZBJ primers were not appropriate for detecting ant DNA as they revealed very few prey types, therefore ant-specific primers were used. The cut-off threshold for erroneous MOTUs was identified as 0.005% of the total number of valid sequences, at individual predator level it was 0.05%. The fundamental trophic niche of Callilepis species included mainly ants, while that of N. exornata included many different prey types. The realised trophic niche in Callilepis species was similar to its fundamental niche but in N. exornata the fundamental niche was wider than realised niche. The results show that Callilepis species are ant-eating (specialised) stenophagous predators, catching mainly Formicinae ants, while N. exornata is an ant-eating euryphagous predator catching mainly Myrmicinae ants

Early-season predation on aphids by winter-active spiders in apple orchards revealed by diagnostic PCR

Aphids are major pests in apple orchards, debilitating the crop and spreading disease. We investigated whether early-season predation by canopy spiders may be effectively controlling aphid numbers in three organic orchards. For this purpose, we monitored the aphid population dynamics from the winter eggs to colony stages and compared this to spider abundances and rates of predation on aphids detected by diagnostic polymerase chain reaction. For the latter, we applied existing general aphid primers. We found that spiders ate colony fundatrices and that aphid numbers were negatively related to spider abundance. Spiders were the main active predators within the orchards when the first colony fundatrices were present, indicating their importance in the early control of aphid populations

The diet of a nocturnal pelagic predator, the Bulwer's petrel, across the lunar cycle

Existe informação suplementar disponível na versão online.The lunar cycle is believed to strongly influence the vertical distribution of many oceanic taxa, with implications for the foraging behaviour of nocturnal marine predators. Most studies to date testing lunar effects on foraging have focused on predator activity at-sea, with some birds and marine mammals demonstrating contrasting behavioural patterns, depending on the lunar-phase. However, to date no study has focused on how the lunar cycle might actually affect predator-prey interactions in the upper layers of the ocean. Here, we tested whether the diet of the predominantly nocturnal pelagic predator, the Bulwer's petrel (Bulweria bulwerii) would change throughout the lunar cycle, using molecular analysis to augment detection and taxonomic resolution of prey collected from stomach-contents. We found no evidence of dietary shifts in species composition or diversity, with Bulwer's petrel always consuming a wide range of mesopelagic species. Other co-variables potentially affecting light availability at-sea, such as percentage of cloud cover, did not confound our results. Moreover, many of the species found are thought not to reach the sea-surface. Our findings reveal that nocturnal predators are probably more specialized than previously assumed, irrespective of ambient-light, but also reveal deficiencies in our current understanding of species vertical distribution and predation-dynamics at-sea.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT); FEDERinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Editorial

This issue of the Bulletin of Entomological Research is a little different, in that it includes eight papers from a conference held last year at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, entitled ‘Molecular approaches to study trophic interactions: current progress and future directions’. Details of the meeting can still be found at www.mti-symposium.at. The meeting was organised to bring together researchers in the growing fields of molecular analysis of predation and parasitism. The aim was to discuss and synthesize the latest progress in these fields, to discuss techniques, to identify promising avenues for future research and to stimulate cooperation and collaboration. A major objective was also to attract those new to, or interested in, using these approaches and to provide a workshop that would help them get started and to understand the advantages and limitations of molecular approaches. The meeting was deliberately cross-discipline, bringing together people working on vertebrates and invertebrates, terrestrial and aquatic systems, but all with a common interest in trophic relationships and their study using molecular approaches. There were over 70 researchers and students from 15 countries at this highly diverse, three-day conference. Four sessions were held and introduced by keynote speakers, each an international leader in his field: Simon Jarman (Australian Antarctic Division, Australia) introduced the session on predation in aquatic systems, and Andrew King (Cardiff University, UK) provided us with an overview on predation in terrestrial systems. The session on the analysis of blood meals was opened by Steven Torr (University of Greenwich, UK), while Matt Greenstone (USDA, USA) provided (remotely) a keynote address on molecular approaches to study endoparasitism. The keynote presentations were followed by an array of highly interesting talks, complemented by posters. This special issue of Bulletin of Entomological Research, therefore, includes papers form this techniques-based meeting that are by no means all entomological. Our justification for this diversion from our usual editorial policies is that the molecular approaches used are widely applicable across taxonomic divisions. Thus, a technique developed to detect dietary components in the guts of krill might be equally useful to someone working on predation by carabid beetles or ladybirds. We make no apologies, therefore, for including papers on the gut microflora of lumbricid earthworms and the diets of rock lobsters alongside more familiar entomological studies on predation and parasitism. These papers clearly demonstrate that molecular analyses are providing us with exciting new ways to study trophic relationships within food webs in a range of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. We would like to thank all participants at the Symposium who made this conference such a rewarding and productive meeting, but especially those who have contributed to this special edition. We look forward to regular future symposia in this fast-moving field

Sex and age-biased nematode prevalence in reptiles

Prevalence and intensity of parasitic infections are often higher in male than in female vertebrates. This bias may represent either differences between host sex in exposure or susceptibility to parasites. The former may be due to sex-specific behaviour of the host, including differential habitat use or diet. Differences in susceptibility are often regarded as a negative effect of male sex steroid hormones on the immune system. Host–parasite dynamics are of great interest in terms of reptile survival, ecology and conservation. We used, for the first time, molecular diagnostics to track nematode parasitism in wild populations of reptiles noninvasively. Using slow worms (Anguis fragilis) as a model species, we investigated the interacting effects of time of year, sex, length, weight and climatic variables on the prevalence of the gastroenterological parasitic nematode Neoxysomatium brevicaudatum. Faeces were collected from three sites over 2 years. There was an interaction between sex and time of year, with lower nematode prevalence in males than in females in July or August (different between years) but a high prevalence in males in April. As the latter is during the slow worm breeding season, this may be the result of testosterone-induced immunosuppression. A second-order interaction between slow worm length and weight was found to be significant, with a positive association between prevalence and body condition in young slow worms and a negative association in older slow worms. The convex pattern of nematode prevalence with age that emerged suggests an increase with age-related exposure and a decrease with age-related acquired immunity