Plague, a zoonosis caused by Yersinia pestis, is still found in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Madagascar reports almost one third of the cases worldwide. Y. pestis can be encountered in three very different types of foci: urban, rural, and sylvatic. Flea vector and wild rodent host population dynamics are tightly correlated with modulation of climatic conditions, an association that could be ...

We combined data on gut-passage times, feeding, and movement to explore the patterns of seed dispersal by Eulemur rubriventer, Eulemur rufrifrons, and Varecia variegata editorum lemurs in Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar. These lemur species deposited less than half of their consumed seeds >100 m away from conspecific trees (40-50%). Long-distance dispersal (>500 m) was rare and average dis...

The genera Hovadelium Ardoin, 1961 and Mimolaena Ardoin, 1961, endemic in Madagascar, are revised and assigned to the tribe Laenini Seidlitz, 1896 (subfamily Lagriinae Latreille, 1825). New species: Hovadelium ardoini sp. n., Hovadelium bremeri sp. n. and Mimolaena janaki sp. n. An identification key is compiled for all taxa. Distribution of Hovadelium (5 species) and Mimolaena (3 species) is m...

1 Technische Universitat Braunschweig, Division of Evolutionary Biology, Zoological Institute, Mendelssohnstr. 4, 38106, Braunschweig, Germany, 2 Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NR, United Kingdom, 3 Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, Regent’s Park, London, NW1 4RY, United Kingdom...

Outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza have occurred and have been studied in a variety of ecological systems. However, differences in the spatial resolution, geographical extent, units of analysis and risk factors examined in these studies prevent their quantitative comparison. This study aimed to develop a high-resolution, comparative study of a common set of agro-environmental determ...

High species diversity and endemism within Madagascar is mainly the result of species radiations following colonization from nearby continents or islands. Most of the endemic taxa are thought to be descendants of a single or small number of colonizers that arrived from Africa sometime during the Cenozoic and gave rise to highly diverse groups. This pattern is largely based on vertebrates and a ...

Illegal selective logging of tropical timber is of increasing concern worldwide. Madagascar is a biodiversity hotspot and home to some of the world's most sought after tropical timber species. Malagasy rosewoods belong to the genus Dalbergia (Fabaceae), which is highly diverse and has a pantropical distribution, but these timber species are among the most threatened as a consequence of intensiv...

The monocot family Aponogetonaceae (Alismatales) consists only of Aponogeton, with 57 species occurring in Africa, Madagascar, India and Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia and Australia. Earlier studies inferred a Madagascan or Australian origin for the genus. Aponogeton-like pollen is documented from the Late Cretaceous of Wyoming, the early mid-Eocene of Canada, and the late mid-Eocene of Greenland. W...

[1] Based on ten years (1998–2007) of satellite ocean color data we analyze the spatiotemporal patterns in the seasonal Madagascar plankton bloom with respect to the advection of the recently discovered Southern Indian Ocean Countercurrent (SICC). In maps of Finite-time Lyapunov Exponents (FTLE) and Finite-Time Zonal Drift (FTZD) computed from altimetry derived velocities we observe a narrow zo...

Studies on the Agalliini leafhoppers collected from the Terrestrial Arthropods of Madagascar inventory project of the California Academy of Sciences, resulted in the discovery of one new genus Agallidwipa gen. nov. (type-species: A. biramosa sp. nov.) with three new species, A. biramosa sp. nov., A. bispinosa sp. nov. and A. webbi sp. nov. and three new species of the genus Igerna Kirkaldy, I. ...