Digging with ‘hands’: observations of food capture in the flying gurnard Dactylopterus volitans (Linnaeus, 1758)

ABSTRACT

Videofilms of a foraging flying gurnard (Dactylopterus volitans) were collected at Itaipu, Niterói, RJ, Brazil. Analysis revealed details of the use of anterior parts of the pectoral fins which act as digging ‘hands’ to access infaunal prey items that are subsequently captured by oral suction feeding. Each pectoral fin has two distinct sections articulated separately on the pectoral girdle. The digging ‘anterior pectoral fin’ mainly consists of segmented and flexible fin rays but has an anterior robust unsegmented ray that provides an edge to the ‘hand’, allowing penetration of the substratum. The huge ‘posterior pectoral fins’ are supported by unsegmented rays. Most digging episodes involved one ‘hand’ and consisted of 1–7 cycles of movement with frequencies 1.15–3.74 cycles s^?1. During a cycle, the ‘hand’ is moved forwards and medially above the substratum, then is twisted medially and simultaneously depressed so that the anterior unsegmented ray impacts and enters the substratum. The hand is then drawn backwards and laterally to disturb the substratum. To prevent upward pitching of the head during digging, the ‘posterior pectoral fins’ are both moved anteriorly and laterally to shift the centre of gravity forwards while the caudal and ?second dorsal fins continue to provide propulsive force.     

扰动对天敌有多食性模型稳定性的影响

本文主要讨论了扰动对天敌具有多食性模型 x_1=x_1(r_1-a_1y), x_2=x_2(r_2-a_2y), y=y(-r_3+b_1x_1+b_2x_2)稳定性的影响。利用Liapunov函数得到了昆虫种类内部的密度制约,将促使昆虫与天敌系统进一步稳定化,进而得出同一食饵水平上的竞争是不稳定化的结论。其中后一种情况与J.M,Smith的结论完全一致。     

一类具有时滞捕食-食饵系统的稳定性分析

研究了一类带有时滞和对食饵具有阶段结构的捕食-食饵系统，通过线性化得到了该系统平衡点的局部稳定的充分条件．给出了解的渐近性质和阶段结构对种群持续生存的负面影响、     

基于比率的离散型捕食系统的周期解

针对一类基于比率的离散型捕食系统，利用重合度理论给出了该系统正周期解的存在性判据．     

捕食者——食饵系统的稳定性

论证了具有种内相互作用，功能反应的一个公共食饵和两个互相竞争的捕食者系统，并得到了系统平衡态稳定性的两个定理，证明了扩散对系统具有稳定的效应，并且给出了两个了说明定量的应用，以此推广了文献（５）的结果。     

基于改进的Monte Carlo方法及其应用

建立了一个基于网格由狼羊草组成的生态系统模型，模型中对捕食者(狼)及被捕食者(羊)给予了相应的属性定义，把草界定为可再生资源，通过引入“超结构”的规则，解决了采用Monte Carlo。方法模拟时网格状态不能同步更新的问题。通过模拟，得到模型的三种典型结果：即捕食者灭绝，捕食者被捕食者都灭绝以及捕食者被捕食者共存，给出了三种结果出现的几率分布，而且只要捕食者的初始密度不太大，生态系统很容易达到共存状态，生态系统对应的网格规模越大，生态系统越容易达到共存。     

Prey selection by Australian wasps of the genus Cerceris (Hymenoptera,Sphecidae)

Prey records are presented for 17 Australian species of the digger wasp genus Cerceris. Collectively beetles of 10 families were found to serve as prey. Several species appear to be specialists, taking only members of certain genera or subfamilies, while others accept members of several families. It is common to find several species nesting together in areas of suitable substrate. In such areas it is evidently to the advantage of all species either to specialize to ‘share’ the available beetle prey or to become generalists, taking advantage of whatever beetles of suitable size are abundant in the surrounding vegetation.     

Microhabitat use and feeding habits of Crossodactylus bokermanni Caramaschi and Sazima, 1985 (Anura,Hylodidae) at a site in south‐eastern Brazil

We studied a population of Crossodactylus bokermanni in a stream at the Reserva Particular do Patrimônio Natural, Santuário do Caraça, south‐eastern Brazil, with respect to microhabitat use and diet. We characterized microhabitats based on substrate, distance to water and exposure level of the occupying individual (exposed or sheltered), and adjacent aquatic microhabitats (evaluated as potential nesting sites based on observed nests), according to water current (absent, slow or fast), substrate and depth. Calling males, silent males, ovigerous females, non‐ovigerous females and juveniles showed spatial niche overlap higher than that expected by chance, with calling males showing the strongest preference for microhabitats close to potential nesting sites (with intermediate depths, fast current and sandy bottom). Only 14 males out of 48 individuals examined for stomach contents had prey in their stomachs. The food items with the highest electivity values were Coleoptera and Diptera, but preys with both high and low mobility were exploited.     

The atyid shrimp (Crustacea: Decapoda: Atyidae) rostrum: phylogeny versus adaptation,taxonomy versus trophic ecology

Cave shrimps of the subgenus Troglocaris (Atyidae), exhibit high variability in rostral length and dentition. In shrimp populations that co-occur with the amphibian predator Proteus anguinus, longer rostra armed with more numerous teeth are recorded. These shrimps are also larger than those living in a presumably Proteus-free environment. Discrepancies between molecularly established phylogenetic relationships and distributions of rostral length, as well as body size, directed our search towards possible environmental influences. These discrepancies suggest that rostral shape is not a reliable taxonomic character in some generic and many specific diagnoses in Atyidae. We discuss some taxonomic consequences of sexual and ontogenetic rostral differences with regard to the molecular phylogenetic tree. In preliminary laboratory observations, no frontal attack by Proteus was successful on shrimps with long rostra. Proteus also needed more time to swallow shrimps with long rostra.     

The varied foraging mode of the subtropical eublepharid gecko Goniurosaurus kuroiwae orientalis

Insectivorous lizards usually employ one of two foraging modes, ambush ‘sit-and-wait’ or active ‘widely foraging’, but in the Gekkonomorpha the situation has been unclear. Therefore we quantified the foraging mode of the eublepharid gecko Goniurosaurus kuroiwae orientalis on Tokashikijima near Okinawajima, Japan, in September 1999. The taxon is rare, endangered and protected. On the selected semi-urban study site the gecko was confirmed as a nocturnal cursorial gecko, which also ascends trees up to 1.8 m. Foraging regimes of marked individuals, during repeated 30-min observation periods, could vary from immobility throughout, to active locomotion 84% of the time. Foraging mode was not significantly affected by sex, body length, mass or state of tail regeneration of the individuals, or by the timing of the observation. In males, at higher temperatures single moves became longer, while time allocated to moving was stable. In both sexes longer observation bouts included longer sitting pauses, which, given stable move duration, reduced the share of time spent moving and the moves per minute. Goniurosaurus kuroiwae orientalis averaged moving during 23% of the time, moving 0.39 times per minute, the moves lasting 77 s and the pauses lasting 745 s. Compared to other geckos, G. k. orientalis may be defined as a widely foraging animal, despite its mixed behaviour. This result supports the definition of the Eublepharidae as widely foraging and is compatible with two hypotheses, that early Gekkonomorpha were widely foraging or that they had an intermediate, undefined, foraging mode.