A karyological study and the analysis of two mitochondrial genes were conducted in several species of cordyliformes from Madagascar. Both studies confirmed the monophyly of cordyliformes. The karyological conservatism and small genetic distance among mitochondrial genes observed in these species are in line with the hypothesis that all cordyliformes should be included in a single family. The tw...

Dogs' (Canis familiaris) and cats' (Felis catus) interspecific communicative behavior toward humans was investigated. In Experiment 1, the ability of dogs and cats to use human pointing gestures in an object-choice task was compared using 4 types of pointing cues differing in distance between the signaled object and the end of the fingertip and in visibility duration of the given signal. Using ...

Seven new species of the Scaptodrosophila brunnea species group are described from east Asia: S. maculatasp. n., S. melanogastersp. n., S. nigricostatasp. n., S. nigripectasp. n., S. obscuratasp. n., S. protenipenissp. n. and S. rhinasp. n. Three known species, S. parabrunnea (Tsacas & Chassagnard), S. pressobrunnea (Tsacas & Chassagnard) and S. scutellimargo (Duda) are redescribed. A key to al...

The populations of many species fluctuate in synchrony across large geographical areas. This synchrony is often attributed to the Moran effect, that is, shared environmental fluctuations across the region. In this article, I use a series of simple metapopulation models to show that the degree of synchrony among populations separated by different distances is strongly affected by the particular ...

BACKGROUND DNA barcoding has recently been proposed as a promising tool for the rapid species identification in a wide range of animal taxa. Two broad methods (distance and monophyly-based methods) have been used. One method is based on degree of DNA sequence variation within and between species while another method requires the recovery of species as discrete clades (monophyly) on a phylogenet...

DNA barcoding is a molecular method that uses a short standardized DNA sequence as a species identification tool. In this study, the standard 652 base-pair region of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I gene (COI) was sequenced in marine fish specimens captured in China. The average genetic distance was 50-fold higher between species than within species, as Kimura two parameter (K2P) ...

UNLABELLED PREMISE OF THE STUDY Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers based on Competitive Allele-Specific PCR (KASPar) were developed from sequences of three Citrus species. Their transferability was tested in 63 Citrus genotypes and 19 relative genera of the subfamily Aurantioideae to estimate the potential of SNP markers, selected from a limited intrageneric discovery panel, for on...

A Geographic Information System (GIS)-based model, using presence-only data, was used to predict suitability of habitat for large grazing ungulates on a Zimbabwean wildlife reserve. The management-driven study focused on rare and economically valuable herbivores during the resource-limited hot-dry season. The modelling software Biomapper was used to quantify species–habitat association and deri...

We investigated how morphological differences in the auditory periphery of teleost fishes may relate to hearing capabilities. Two species of western Atlantic sciaenids were examined: weakfish (Cynoscion regalis, Block and Schneider) and spot (Leiostomus xanthurus, Lacepede). These species differ in the anatomical relationship between the swim bladder and the inner ear. In weakfish, the swim bla...

A total of 34 floral visitors of Lavandula latifolia (Labiatae) at a southern Spanish locality were examined from the perspective of their "quality" as pollinators. I considered frequency of pollen transfer, number of pollen grains deposited on the stigma, selection of floral sexual stage (flowers are markedly protandrous), and patterns of flight distance between flowers. Hymenoptera deposited ...