The Darwin wasp Xorides ater is a solitary idiobiont ectoparasitoid of wood-boring beetle larvae. It occurs across the Palaearctic, and in Switzerland seems to be restricted areas above 980 m altitude. Very little known about its biology behaviour. We here report three separate instances female X. mating simultaneously with two males, observed on same occasion Picea abies woodpile near Lenk, Sw...

Choice of breeding habitat can have a major impact on fitness. Sensitivity of habitat choice to environmental cues predicting reproductive success, such as density of harmful enemy species, should be favored by natural selection. Yet, experimental tests of this idea are in short supply. Brown-headed cowbirds Molothrus ater commonly reduce reproductive success of a wide diversity of birds by par...

Photosynthesis, Assimilates, C-Metabolism, M arine/Freshw ater Algae, Taxonomy The representatives of the major algal divisions including Chlorophyta, Rhodophyta and Heterokontophyta usually show specific patterns o f accumulated photoassim ilatory products. Among these compounds, the accumulated low-molecular weight carbohydrates such as mono­ saccharides, disaccharides, alditols (i.e. polyhyd...

Predom inantly curative services, it is at last realised, do not produce wellness. H ealth is determ ined by healthy living which includes good food, clean w ater, unpolluted air and good housing, both in the rural and urban context. Because the W orld Health Organisation and its m em ber states have recognised this, the In ter­ national C onference on Prim ary H ealth Care held in Alma A ta in...

Flocks of brown-headed cowbirds, Molothrus ater, selforganize social environments, which have strong impacts on social learning and behavior. To understand the rules underlying self-organization of the social environment, I develop an agent-based model of cowbird social association and evolve it to match observed patterns of association measured from real birds. The behavioral rules evolved in ...

Data are presented on social and vocal learning in cowbirds (Molothrus ater) housed in large aviaries and given more degrees of freedom than in conventional experimental studies. The studies show that social and vocal outcomes are facultative responses to social contexts. Several findings are reviewed: First, cowbirds quickly self-organize into groups by age and sex; second, opportunities to in...