The Phora of Costa Rica were reviewed and three species, all belonging to Schmitz's Group III, were recognized: P. americana Schmitz and Wirth, P. truncata new species and P. paramericana new species. Of the three species, P. americana is by far the most abundant, with the other two species being rarely collected. All specimens were collected in the central highlands of the country. The previou...

The phoronid Phoronopsis albomaculata was collected in subtidal (28– 35 m) sandy sediments in Bahı́a Chatham during a benthic survey designed to describe the biota of Cocos Island (Isla del Coco), Costa Rica, a national park and Human Heritage Site. Occurrence of this widespread species in Cocos Island is the first report of a phoronid for Costa Rican waters and is the second locality recorded f...

5 Chapter I: Introduction 6 Arrival 6 Thesis Outline 8 Chapter II: Geology, Geography, and History 12 Geology and Geography 12 History 13 i. Pre-Settlement 13 ii. Settlement 16 iii. Darwin’s Visit 19 iv. Modern History 22 Chapter III: The Anthropology of Tourism 25 Introduction 25 History and Notable Works 25 Theory 31 Themes 33 Chapter IV: Costa Rica and Ecotourism 35 Why Costa Rica? 35 Implem...

—Histura perseavora Brown, new species, from Guatemala, is described and illustrated. It is compared with Histura curvata (Meyrick) from Brazil and Histurodes costaricana Razowski from Costa Rica. All specimens of H. perseavora were reared from either fruit, fruit pedicels, or young green branches of avocados (Persea americana Mill.; Lauraceae) during efforts to identify lepidopteran pests of t...

Gorgonian octocorals (order Alcyonacea) are the most abundant components of shallow eastern Pacific marine communities (Breedy & Guzman, 2003a). They occur mainly in zones of strong current swell and breaking surf, attached to rocky bottoms, shells, and small rock fragments (Breedy & Guzman, 2002). Although abundant, the eastern Pacific octocoral fauna was considered poorly known by Bayer (1981...

Fecal samples from 155 mantled howling monkeys (Alouatta palliata palliata) examined at Centro Ecologico La Pacifica, Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica, revealed 75 (48%) had parasitic infections. A sampling of nine howling monkeys from Santa Rosa National Park. Costa Rica indicated only one infected animal (11%). Only three of 19 (16%) spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) also from Santa Rosa were ...

Pentastomids are parasites that infect respiratory cavities of vertebrates, they are pretty common but poorly known in wildlife veterinary. A Bothrops asper snake (Garman, 1884) was captured in the Caribbean region of Costa Rica and had its lung infested with pentastomids, identified as ca Porocephalus clavatus (Wyman, 1845). This represents the first record of Porocephalus (Humboldt, 1812) on ...

In Costa Rica, an annual outbreak of infant diarrheal disease (December and January) was reported since 1976, and rotavirus was incriminated later as the main etiological agent (1976-1981). Apparently the disease has not been systematically studied in Costa Rica after 1981. For that reason the occurrence of the outbreak was retrospectively documented for 1993-1995 and etiology was studied in 48...

A new species of terrestrial pitviper, Porthidium porrasi, is described from mesophytic forests of the Península de Osa and surrounding area of the Pacific versant of southwestern Costa Rica. It is most similar to P. nasutum and is characterized by a pattern of bands, persistence of the juvenile tail color in adults, and a high number of dorsal scales. Analysis of mtDNA sequences confirms its d...

Data from the national tumor registry of Costa Rica for the years 1979-1983 have been used to calculate incidence rates for the major cancer sites by age, sex, urban-rural residence, and geographic region. Recent trends in mortality rates are also presented. Results are compared with data from elsewhere in Latin America, U.S.A., Europe, and Japan. Stomach cancer is the most frequent neoplasm in...