Growing evidence suggests that parasite-infected prey is more vulnerable to predation. However, the mechanism underlying this phenomenon obscure. In small mammals, analgesia induced by environmental stressors a fundamental component of defensive repertoire, promoting responses. Thus, reduced may impair ability and increase their predation risk. This study aimed determine whether coccidia infect...

a Baruch College and Graduate Center, City University of New York, 17 Lexington Avenue, Box A0506, New York, NY 10010, USA b Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences and Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory, Rutgers University, 6959 Miller Avenue, Port Norris, NJ 08349, USA c University of Maine at Machias and Downeast Institute, 116 O'Brien Avenue, Machias, ME 04654, USA d Rutgers Cooperative...

Understanding the relationship between body size and mortality is an important problem in ecology. We introduce a novel Bayesian method that can be used to quantify this relationship when the only data available are size-frequency distributions of unmarked individuals measured at two successive time periods. The inverse Gaussian distribution provides a parametric form for the statistical model ...

Honey bee, Apis mellifera L. (Hymenoptera: Apidae), colonies infested by parasitic mites are more prone to suffer from a variety of stresses, including cold temperature. We evaluated the overwintering ability of candidate breeder lines of Russian honey bees, most of which are resistant to both Varroa destructor Anderson & Trueman and Acarapis woodi (Rennie), during 1999-2001. Our results indica...

We tested for negative effects of West Nile virus (WNV) on a breeding population of eastern bluebirds in Alabama by comparing fecundity and reproductive success in years before and after the arrival of WNV and by comparing fecundity, reproductive success, and overwinter survival of seropositive and seronegative individuals within the same population in the same years. We found that female blueb...

Massive proliferations of scyphozoan jellyfish considerably affect human industries and irreversibly change food webs. Efforts to understand the role of jellyfish in marine ecosystems are based on a life cycle model described 200 years ago. According to this paradigm the pelagic medusae is considered seasonal and alternates with the benthic polyp stage from which it derives. However, we provide...

Fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), infestations in most of North America arise from annual migrations of populations that overwinter in southern Texas and Florida. Cytochrome oxidase I haplotype profiles within the fall armyworm corn strain, the subgroup that preferentially infests corn (Zea mays L.), can differentiate the Texas and Florida populations....

A total of 67 nests of Centris tarsata were obtained from wood trap-nests of different diameters, consisting of a linear series of brood cells built with sand mixed with oil. This species showed a preference for open habitats, since it occurred only in Swamp and Grassland areas and has never been found in the Araucaria forest. Nesting activity was bigger during the hot season, especially in Dec...

Mature larva and pupa of Adosomus (s. str.) roridus (Pallas, 1781) (Curculionidae: Lixinae: Cleonini) are described and compared with ten other taxa of Cleonini with known larvae. This weevil is an oligophagous species on the Asteraceae family. From our observations in Slovakia, we found active adults from April to September in dry sunny places within extensively used or fallow vineyards and in...