http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2015.11.015 0003-3472/© 2015 The Association for the Study of A Animals are selective about when to learn by observing others. Models predict that social information becomes less reliable in uncertain environments, and therefore animals should reduce their use of social information in these environments; however, these parameters are often difficult to manipu...

Blue jays learned to respond differentially to the presence or absence of Catocala moths in slides. This detection of the moths by the jays was affected by the background upon which the moth was placed and its body orientation, thus providing an objective measure of crypticity. These procedures are useful for the study of visual detection of prey.

Three thousand Periplaneta americana were sacrificed and the following data collected: number parasitized by oxyurid nematodes, age, sex, weight, length, specific gravity of hemolymph, differential cell counts of hemocytes, and the number of each nematode species present. The mean number of nematodes per host for adults and nymphs, and males and females were compared using the Student's Mest. T...

Brucella spp. were isolated from marine mammals for the first time in 1994. Two novel species were later included in the genus; Brucella ceti and Brucella pinnipedialis, with cetaceans and seals as their preferred hosts, respectively. Brucella spp. have since been isolated from a variety of marine mammals. Pathological changes, including lesions of the reproductive organs and associated abortio...

Blue jays trained to detect Catocala moths in slides were exposed to two types of slide series containing these moths: series of one species and series of two species intermixed. In one-species series, detection ability increased with successive encounters with one prey type. No similar effect occurred in two-species series. These results are a direct demonstration of a specific search image.

Mycorrhizas are the chief organ for plant mineral nutrient acquisition. In temperate, mixed forests, ash roots (Fraxinus excelsior) are colonized by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AM) and beech roots (Fagus sylvatica) by ectomycorrhizal fungi (EcM). Knowledge on the functions of different mycorrhizal species that coexist in the same environment is scarce. The concentrations of nutrient elements ...