Escalation of a coevolutionary arms race through host rejection of brood parasitic young

Cuckoo nestlings that evict all other young from the nest soon after hatching impose a high reproductive cost on their hosts. In defence, hosts have coevolved strategies to prevent brood parasitism. Puzzlingly, they do not extend beyond the egg stage. Thus, hosts adept at recognizing foreign eggs remain vulnerable to exploitation by cuckoo nestlings. Here we show that the breach of host egg defences by cuckoos creates a new stage in the coevolutionary cycle. We found that defences used during the egg-laying period by host superb fairy-wrens (Malurus cyaneus) are easily evaded by the Horsfield's bronze-cuckoo (Chrysococcyx basalis), a specialist fairy-wren brood parasite. However, although hosts never deserted their own broods, they later abandoned 40% of nests containing a lone Horsfield's bronze-cuckoo nestling, and 100% of nests with a lone shining bronze-cuckoo nestling (Chrysococcyx lucidus), an occasional fairy-wren brood parasite. Our experiments demonstrate that host discrimination against evictor-cuckoo nestlings is possible, and suggest that it has selected for the evolution of nestling mimicry in bronze-cuckoos.     

Insurance-based advantage to helpers in a tropical hover wasp

The origin and maintenance of eusociality is a central problem in evolutionary biology. Eusocial groups contain individuals that forfeit their own reproduction in order to help others reproduce. In facultatively eusocial taxa, offspring can choose whether to found new nests or become helpers in their natal groups. In many facultatively eusocial insects, offspring need continuous care during development, but adult carers have life expectancies shorter than the developmental period. When a lone foundress dies, her partly reared brood are usually doomed. Here, we show that helpers in a tropical hover wasp (Liostenogaster flavolineata) have an insurance-based advantage over lone foundresses because after a helper dies, most of the brood that she has partly reared will be brought to maturity by surviving nest-mates. After some of the helpers are experimentally removed from a multi-female nest, the reduced group is left with more brood than it would normally rear. We found that larger, more valuable extra brood were reared through to maturity, but not smaller, less valuable brood. Smaller brood may be sacrificed to feed larger brood, and reduced groups probably benefited from increased short-term helper recruitment. Rearing extra brood did not increase adult mortality or brood development time.     

Speciation by host switch in brood parasitic indigobirds

A growing body of empirical and theoretical work supports the plausibility of sympatric speciation, but there remain few examples in which all the essential components of the process are well understood. The African indigobirds Vidua spp. are host-specific brood parasites. Indigobird nestlings are reared along with host young, and mimic the mouth markings of their respective hosts. As adults, male indigobirds mimic host song, whereas females use these songs to choose both their mates and the nests they parasitize. These behavioural mechanisms promote the cohesion of indigobird populations associated with a given host species, and provide a mechanism for reproductive isolation after a new host is colonized. Here we show that all indigobird species are similar genetically, but are significantly differentiated in both mitochondrial haplotype and nuclear allele frequencies. These data support a model of recent sympatric speciation. In contrast to the cuckoo Cuculus canorus, in which only female lineages are faithful to specific hosts, host switches have led to speciation in indigobirds because both males and females imprint on their hosts.     

Parasitoid secretions provoke ant warfare

Insect social parasites are extreme specialists that typically use mimicry or stealth to enter ant colonies to exploit the rich, but fiercely protected, resources within their nests. Here we show how a parasitic wasp (parasitoid) contrives to reach its host, itself an endangered species of social parasite that lives inside the brood chambers of ant nests, by releasing semiochemicals to induce in-fighting between worker ants, locking the colony in combat and leaving it underprotected. Four of these chemicals are new to biology and have the potential to control pest species by inducing different agonistic behaviours in ants.     

Life-history traits of voles in a fluctuating population respond to the immediate environment.

Life-history traits relating to growth and reproduction vary greatly among species and populations and among individuals within populations. In vole populations, body size and age at maturation may vary considerably among locations and among years within the same location. Individuals in increasing populations are typically larger and start reproduction earlier in the spring than those in declining populations. The cause of such life-history variation within populations has been subject of much discussion. Much of the controversy concerns whether the memory of past conditions, leading to delayed effects on life-history traits, resides in the environment (for example, predators, pathogens or food) or intrinsically within populations or individuals (age distribution, physiological state, genetic or maternal effects). Here we report from an extensive field transplant experiment in which voles were moved before the breeding season between sites that differed in average overwintering body mass. Transplanted voles did not retain the characteristics of their source population, and we demonstrate an over-riding role of the immediate environment in shaping life-history traits of small rodents.     

Aggression by polyembryonic wasp soldiers correlates with kinship but not resource competition

Kin selection theory predicts that individuals will show less aggression and more altruism towards relatives. However, recent theoretical developments suggest that with limited dispersal, competition between relatives can override the effects of relatedness. The predicted and opposing influences of relatedness and competition are difficult to approach experimentally because conditions that increase average relatedness among individuals also tend to increase competition. Polyembryonic wasps in the family Encyrtidae are parasites whose eggs undergo clonal division to produce large broods. These insects have also evolved a caste system: some embryos in a clone develop into reproductive larvae that mature into adults, whereas others develop into sterile soldier larvae that defend siblings from competitors. In a brood from a single egg, reproductive altruism by soldiers reflects clone-level allocation to defence at the cost of reproduction, with no conflict between individuals. When multiple eggs are laid into a host, inter-clone conflicts of interest arise. Here we report that soldier aggression in Copidosoma floridanum is inversely related to the genetic relatedness of competitors but shows no correlation with the level of resource competition.     

An obligate brood parasite trapped in the intraspecific arms race of its hosts

Reciprocal selection pressures often lead to close and adaptive matching of traits in coevolved species. A failure of one species to match the evolutionary trajectories of another is often attributed to evolutionary lags or to differing selection pressures across a geographic mosaic. Here we show that mismatches in adaptation of interacting species--an obligate brood parasitic duck and each of its two main hosts--are best explained by the evolutionary dynamics within the host species. Rejection of the brood parasite's eggs was common by both hosts, despite a lack of detectable cost of parasitism to the hosts. Egg rejection markedly reduced parasite fitness, but egg mimicry experiments revealed no phenotypic natural selection for more mimetic parasitic eggs. These paradoxical results were resolved by the discovery of intraspecific brood parasitism and conspecific egg rejection within the hosts themselves. The apparent arms race between species seems instead to be an incidental by-product of within-species conflict, with little recourse for evolutionary response by the parasite.     

鹅掌楸生殖生态研究:生殖分配与生活史对策

在鹅掌楸的营养生长和生殖两方面．资源不平衡分配。生殖和营养结构发育所需的资源位在时间上重叠。生殖包装和生殖分配格局显示．大种子稍优于小种子,资源被部分地用于提高种子散布适合度,资源限制结籽率假说不适合该树种。鹅掌楸的生活史特征表现为：初次结实年龄10a以上,为多次结实,可大量结实,种子中等大小;植物个体寿命达100a以上．有性生殖过程持续时间长。从生活史特征组合分析可知,鹅掌楸是需要迁移的种(即r-对策)。     

Variation in egg size and nestling growth rate in relation to clutch size and laying sequence in great tits Parus major

The objectives of this study were to examine (1) optimal clutch size in great tits (Parus major) nesting in nest boxes; (2) variation in egg morphology and nestling growth rate with position in the laying sequence; and (3) hatching asynchrony and nestling survival as determined by infrared nest cameras. We collected data from 73 clutches in artificial nest boxes in the Zuojia Natural Preserve area in Jilin Province, China, in 2005 and 2006, using infrared cameras to match laying order to hatching order for four nests. Egg morphology and growth rate were significantly affected by clutch size and position in the laying order. Overall, egg size and growth rate increased with position in the laying order. In general, it was difficult to detect asynchronous hatching from observations alone, but data from our infrared cameras showed that early-laid eggs tended to hatch before later-laid eggs, leading to hatching asynchrony. However, females invested more into last-laid eggs and nestlings, reducing size asynchrony among the chicks and leading to higher survival rates of nestlings. Our results, therefore, provide support for the"brood survival"hypothesis rather than for the"brood reduction"hypothesis.     

Patterns of magpie nest utilization by a nesting raptor community in a secondary forest

For a total of 9 years, we examined the patterns of a nesting raptor community that utilized European Magpie (Pica pica) nests in the Zuojia Natural Reserve, northeast China. Eight raptor species and two other bird species were recorded nesting in magpie nests. The reuse rate of abandoned magpie nests was 51.6%, and the number of reused nests was positively correlated with their availability. Raptors utilized 83.3% of the reused abandoned magpie nests. Nests followed for more than 1 year were reused by raptors an average of 1.13 times. Interspecific nest usurpation was common, with 17.3% of new magpie nests being usurped by raptors, and four cases of usurpation occurred among different raptor species. At the community level, 8 of 11 raptor species took over magpie nests to breed in the study area, and 91.9% of their nests came from magpie nests. European Magpies represent the core species in the nest web of the local raptor community that utilizes magpie nests. At the forest stand level, closer proximity to forest edges and greater distances from occupied raptor nests were the best predictors of nest reuse. At the nest-site level, arbor density and canopy coverage were the best predictors of nest reuse.     

Patterns of colonization in a metapopulation of grey seals

The colonization of a new habitat is a fundamental process in metapopulation biology, but it is difficult to study. The emigration of colonists from established populations might be induced by resource competition owing to high local population density. Migration distances are also important because they determine the frequency and scale of recolonization and hence the spatial scale of the metapopulation. Traditionally, these factors have been investigated with demographic approaches that are labour-intensive and are only possible in amenable species. In many cases, genetic differentiation is minimal, preventing traditional genetic approaches from identifying the source of colonists unambiguously. Here we present a bayesian approach that integrates genetic, demographic and geographic distance data. We apply the method to study the British metapopulation of grey seals, which has been growing at 6% per year over the last few decades. Our method reveals differential recruitment to three newly founded colonies and implicates density-dependent dispersal in metapopulation dynamics by using genetic data.     

Pattern of covariation between life-history traits of European birds

A large amount of variation is found in most reproductive traits of birds. Clutch size for instance, can vary from 1 to 15 between species of similar body weight. The adaptive significance of this variation is only poorly understood. According to life-history theory, large clutch size and early onset of reproduction are expected when the chances of survival are low. There is some support for the existence of such a relationship from studies of single species. Here I present evidence that, in European birds, clutch size is increased, and onset of reproduction occurs earlier in life, when the probability of survival is low.     

The evolution of alternative parasitic life histories in large blue butterflies

Large blue (Maculinea) butterflies are highly endangered throughout the Palaearctic region, and have been the focus of intense conservation research. In addition, their extraordinary parasitic lifestyles make them ideal for studies of life history evolution. Early instars consume flower buds of specific host plants, but later instars live in ant nests where they either devour the brood (predators), or are fed mouth-to-mouth by the adult ants (cuckoos). Here we present the phylogeny for the group, which shows that it is a monophyletic clade nested within Phengaris, a rare Oriental genus whose species have similar life histories. Cuckoo species are likely to have evolved from predatory ancestors. As early as five million years ago, two Maculinea clades diverged, leading to the different parasitic strategies seen in the genus today. Contrary to current belief, the two recognized cuckoo species show little genetic divergence and are probably a single ecologically differentiated species. On the other hand, some of the predatory morphospecies exhibit considerable genetic divergence and may contain cryptic species. These findings have important implications for conservation and reintroduction efforts.     

Patterns and processes in reef fish diversity

A central aim of ecology is to explain the heterogeneous distribution of biodiversity on earth. As expectations of diversity loss grow, this understanding is also critical for effective management and conservation. Although explanations for biodiversity patterns are still a matter for intense debate, they have often been considered to be scale-dependent. At large geographical scales, biogeographers have suggested that variation in species richness results from factors such as area, temperature, environmental stability, and geological processes, among many others. From the species pools generated by these large-scale processes, community ecologists have suggested that local-scale assembly of communities is achieved through processes such as competition, predation, recruitment, disturbances and immigration. Here we analyse hypotheses on speciation and dispersal for reef fish from the Indian and Pacific oceans and show how dispersal from a major centre of origination can simultaneously account for both large-scale gradients in species richness and the structure of local communities.     

Herbivory-induced volatiles elicit defence genes in lima bean leaves

In response to herbivore damage, several plant species emit volatiles that attract natural predators of the attacking herbivores. Using spider mites (Tetranychus urticae) and predatory mites (Phytoseiulus persimilis), it has been shown that not only the attacked plant but also neighbouring plants are affected, becoming more attractive to predatory mites and less susceptible to spider mites. The mechanism involved in such interactions, however, remains elusive. Here we show that uninfested lima bean leaves activate five separate defence genes when exposed to volatiles from conspecific leaves infested with T. urticae, but not when exposed to volatiles from artificially wounded leaves. The expression pattern of these genes is similar to that produced by exposure to jasmonic acid. At least three terpenoids in the volatiles are responsible for this gene activation; they are released in response to herbivory but not artificial wounding. Expression of these genes requires calcium influx and protein phosphorylation/dephosphorylation.     

Ecology: 'Devil's gardens' bedevilled by ants

'Devil's gardens' are large stands of trees in the Amazonian rainforest that consist almost entirely of a single species, Duroia hirsuta, and, according to local legend, are cultivated by an evil forest spirit. Here we show that the ant Myrmelachista schumanni, which nests in D. hirsuta stems, creates devil's gardens by poisoning all plants except its host plants with formic acid. By killing these other plants, M. schumanni provides its colonies with abundant nest sites--a long-lasting benefit as colonies can live for 800 years.     

以线虫为例研究复方左卡尼汀的药理及毒理作用

以秀丽新杆线虫作为模式生物,研究w(左卡尼汀)=0.1%,w(曲美他嗪)=0.000 5%及两种单药的复方药物复方左卡尼汀对连续三代线虫寿命与生殖能力的影响,并对线虫总脂肪进行油红O染色和气相色谱分析.结果表明:w(左卡尼汀)=0.1%,w(曲美他嗪)=0.000 5%及复方左卡尼汀对连续三代线虫的寿命均影响较小;左卡尼汀和曲美他嗪对亲代、F1代和F2代线虫的生殖能力均产生负面影响;复方左卡尼汀对线虫的生殖能力具有保护作用;限制饮食可减少线虫的产卵量,并与线虫的脂肪累积有关;左卡尼汀和曲美他嗪可减少线虫体内的脂肪累积与总脂肪酸的体积分数,复方左卡尼汀对线虫体内脂肪累积和总脂肪酸的体积分数影响较小.     

太行山猕猴王屋-1群的种群动态

种群动态是种群生态学研究的核心问题.为深化对太行山猕猴种群生态学的认识,本研究以栖息于太行山猕猴国家级自然保护区天坛山管护区的太行山猕猴王屋-1群(WW-1)为对象,基于野外观察记录,并结合访问调查和文献查阅,整理分析了该群2002年12月至2015年12月的种群参数、个体扩散模式和种群增长方式等.结果显示:1)WW-1群由2002年12月的14只增长至2015年12月的106只;2)WW-1群平均出生率为每年每只成年雌性生产(0.56±0.23)只婴猴,婴猴(1岁)平均死亡率为10.8%±21.0%;3)WW-1群表现出明显的偏雄(male-biased)的个体扩散模式;4)种群呈指数式增长(Nt=13.32×e~(0.153 1(t-2002))),瞬时增长率为0.153 1.     

Captivity masks inbreeding effects on male mating success in butterflies

Small isolated populations are frequently genetically less diverse than core populations, resulting in higher homozygosity that can hamper their long-term survival. The decrease in fitness of organisms owing to matings between relatives is well known from captive and laboratory animals. Such inbreeding can have strongly deleterious effects on life-history traits and survival, and can be critical to the success of population conservation. Because pedigrees are hard to follow in the wild, most field studies have used marker loci to establish that fitness declines with increasing homozygosity. Very few have experimentally explored the effects of inbreeding in the wild, or compared observations in the laboratory with field conditions. Here, using a technique involving the transfer of marker dusts during copulation, we show that a small decrease in mating success of captive inbred male butterflies in cages is greatly accentuated in conditions with unconstrained flight. Our results have important implications for conservation and for studies of sexual selection because they show that the behaviours underlying patterns of mating can be profoundly influenced by a history of inbreeding or by any restraining experimental conditions.     

北宋翰林图画院人员地位与出身考述

北宋翰林图画院人员属于胥吏阶层,其中少数人供职画院若干年后有出职为官的可能,但在等待出职的年限、出职资格、官品、服饰等方面都有诸多限制,授官的图画院人员在经济待遇方面并无明显改善。翰林图画院人员的整体地位低于文臣、武将、内侍官及伎术官中的医官和天文官,但高于中央机构中其他部门的工匠和翰林院其他伎术人。翰林图画院对民间画工具有吸引力,但是善画的文人却很少愿意供职其中,因此,画院人员多出身于民间工匠。