Co-occurrence of species with similar trophic requirements, such as odonates, seems to depend both on them occupying different microhabitats and differing in their life-cycles. The life cycles of the dragonflies Boyeria irene and Onychogomphus uncatus were studied in two consecutive years, mainly by systematic sampling of larvae in seven permanent head courses that constitute the upper basin of the River Águeda, western Spain, in the central part of the ranges of these two species. The size ranges of the last five larval stadia of both species were established based on biometric data. The eggs of the egg-overwintering aeshnid hatched in late spring and early summer and for the gomphid hatching peaked in middle-late summer. Both species showed mixed voltinism with "cohort splitting". B. irene had a dominant three-year development (partivoltinism), with some developing in two years (semivoltinism). O. uncatus requires four, sometimes three years to complete development (all partivoltine). B. irene larvae spent the winter before emergence in the last three, maybe four stadia, as a "summer species". O. uncatus mainly behaved as a "spring species", most larvae spending the last winter in the final larval stadium.
A key stage in the design of an effective and efficient genetic algorithm is the utilisation of dornain specific knowledge. Once appropriate features have been identified, genetic operators can then be designed which inanipulate these features in well defined ways. In particular, the crossover operátor is designed so as to preserve in any offspring features cominon to both parental solutions and to guarantee that ordy features that appear in the parents appear in the offspring. Forma analysis [1] provides a well-defined frarnework for such a design process.
In this paper we consider the class of bisection problems. Features proposed for set recombination [2] are shown to be redundant when applied to bisection problems. Despite this inherent redundancy, approaches based on such features háve been successfully applied to graph bisection problems [3].
In order to overcome this redundancy and to obtain performance gains over previous genetic algorithm based approaches to graph bisection a natural choice of features is one based on node pairs. However, such features result in a crossover operator that displays degenerative behaviour and is of no practical use.
For polyphagous predators, the link between food consumption and reproduction is not always straightforward, and instead may reflect that even predators with very broad diets may have reproductive tactics that are tied to consumption of a restricted range of prey. We studied the consumption and use of two prey species for reproduction by the ladybird, Harmonia axyridis Pallas. This polyphagous predator feeds on both pea aphids [Acyrthosiphon pisum (Harris)] and larvae of the alfalfa weevil [Hypera postica (Gyllenhal)] that it encounters when foraging in alfalfa fields. When provided a diet of pea aphids or of alfalfa weevils and/or sugar water, females of H. axyridis laid eggs in large numbers only on the diet of aphids. Females laid no eggs on diets of weevils or sugar alone, and laid only small numbers of eggs when the two foods were provided together. When placed on a diet of aphids, females began laying eggs earlier, and laid more eggs altogether, when they had previously fed on weevils versus sugar water. The predators' consumption rates of aphids were greater than their consumption rates of weevils, and they produced less frass per mg of prey consumed on an aphid versus weevil diet. The predators searched more actively when maintained on a weevil versus aphid diet. Hence, lower rates of food intake and assimilation, and greater allocation of nutrients and energy to searching, appear to contribute to the reduced egg production of H. axyridis females that feed on weevils versus aphids. Alfalfa weevils are also less suitable prey than pea aphids for larval survival and development of H. axyridis. Thus, the differing responses of H. axyridis adults to these two prey types may reflect that these predators are well adapted in the linking of their feeding and reproductive behavior.
For an ordered set W = {w1, w2, . . . , wk} of k distinct vertices in a nontrivial connected graph G, the metric code of a vertex v of G with respect to W is the k-vector code(v) = (d(v, w1), d(v, w2), . . . , d(v, wk)) where d(v, wi) is the distance between v and wi for 1 6 i 6 k. The set W is a local metric set of G if code(u) 6= code(v) for every pair u, v of adjacent vertices of G. The minimum positive integer k for which G has a local metric k-set is the local metric dimension lmd(G) of G. A local metric set of G of cardinality lmd(G) is a local metric basis of G. We characterize all nontrivial connected graphs of order n having local metric dimension 1, n − 2, or n − 1 and establish sharp bounds for the local metric dimension of a graph in terms of well-known graphical parameters. Several realization results are presented along with other results on the number of local metric bases of a connected graph.
The present article tackles the subject of the location of the Central Hall in the Egyptian temples of the Ptolemaic period. According to the texts of the temples, the hall in question was situated between the Sanctuary and the Hall of Offerings. A hall with such a strategic position should have been used by the ancient Egyptians to take advantage of its features. Hence, four temples have been investigated: Edfu, Dendera, Philae and Kom Ombo. However, there were earlier theories concerning the location of the Central Hall and these have to be reconsidered. Recently, with the work conducted by Prof. J. F. Quack on the papyri of the Book of the Temple, there has been an enormous amount of information about the description of the ideal temple and its lay out and, in particular, the location of the Central Hall. Since it is a guidebook for the ideal temple, the information implies that it might have been followed or at least taken into consideration during the planning of the temples.
In the Noctuidae, the owlet moths, the internal genitalia, i.e. the aedeagus and vesica (penis) in the males, and the bursa copulatrix in the females, together form a lock-and-key mechanism (LKM). The species-specific structures have their counterparts in the opposite sex. The internal LKM constitutes a specific reproductive isolation mechanism (lock-and-key hypothesis), which seem to be the rule in the ditrysian Lepidoptera, and also occurs in the Carabidae (Coleoptera) and some other insects. In contrast, the external genitalia rarely have species-specific counterparts in the sexes. Several results indicate the presence of LKMs: In the Noctuidae, (1) heterospecific differences in the male vesica may prevent sperm transfer or lead to mechanical failure during copulation, (2) the more complicated the specific genitalia structures, the more aberrations may occur even in conspecific copulations, and (3) in many species pairs and groups, and in one large genus, Apamea, the structures in the opposite sexes show a strictly specific correspondence, but, (4) when there is precopulatory isolation due to differences in pheromone production or perception, the internal genitalia may be identical. Conversely, in the Colias butterflies (Pieridae), (5) frequent heterospecific hybridization is associated with the similarity of the internal genitalia. The LKMs seem to protect genomes against alien genes, supposedly selected for because of the lower fitness of specimens with an imprecise LKM and/or inferiority of hybrids. In the literature, the diversity of the noctuid genitalia has been ascribed to sexual selection, because the females were classified as polyandrous. Most species produce the main part of their eggs monandrously, and remate, if at all, in their old age, and are thus successively monandrous and polyandrous. The allopatric divergence in the structure of the internal genitalia of 39 Holarctic pairs of sister species of Noctuidae is suggested to be due to genetic drift. The insecure function of the female pheromones and external genitalia of males are illustrated with the aid of original photographs.
Paussus favieri Fairmaire is one of only two species of the myrmecophilous carabid tribe Paussini known from Europe.
Larvae are known from only 10 of the 580 paussine species. As in many beetles with considerably modified later instar larvae, the
first instars represent a valuable source of informative characters for taxonomy and phylogenetic analyses (primary chaetotaxy, eggbursters, etc.). Therefore, the discovery of the first instar larva of P. favieri is particularly important, as it represents only the second
species for which this larval stage is known. In this paper we describe the behavior and morphology of the larval first instar of P.
favieri (subtribe Paussina of Paussini) and compare it with that of Arthropterus sp. (subtribe Cerapterina), which is the only other 1st
instar described in the Paussini. Most surprisingly, we found that the 1st instar of P. favieri lacks a prostheca, which was previously
thought to be a synapomorphy of Paussina + Platyrhopalina. Rather, P. favieri has a unique mandibular structure that seems to be
functionally analogous to the protheca. It is a long, broadly lanceolate, distinctly flattened structure apparently homologous to the
medial mandibular seta (MN2*), which arises from an area behind the cutting edge of mandible. We predict that the function of the
protheca and this similar structure in P. favieri are involved in a specialized feeding strategy that may include soliciting trophallaxis
from their host ants. We also report some observations of the first instar hatching from the egg, feeding on liquid and a behaviour we
interpret as a “calling behavior,” all of which were videotaped and posted on the Tree of Life Web Project.
The Cauchy problem for a stochastic partial differential equation with a spatial correlated Gaussian noise is considered. The ''drift'' is continuous, one-sided linearily bounded and of at most polynomial growth while the “diffusion” is globally Lipschitz continuous. In the paper statements on existence and uniqueness of solutions, their pathwise spatial growth and on their ultimate boundedness as well as on asymptotical exponential stability in mean square in a certain Hilbert space of weighted functions are proved.
Three new genera containing five new species of Lophopidae are described: Maana colorata, Maana erythina, Maana oriomoensis, Podoschtroumpfa magna and Pseudotyxis malimoenensis. A new key to the genera of Lophopidae is also provided, followed by a cheklist of the distribution of the genera and their host plants.
Let X be a Stein manifold of complex dimension n\geqslant 2 and \Omega \Subset X be a relatively compact domain with C^{2} smooth boundary in X. Assume that Ω is a weakly q-pseudoconvex domain in X. The purpose of this paper is to establish sufficient conditions for the closed range of \overline \partial on Ω. Moreover, we study the \overline \partial -problem on Ω. Specifically, we use the modified weight function method to study the weighted \overline \partial -problem with exact support in Ω. Our method relies on the L^{2} -estimates by Hörmander (1965) and by Kohn (1973)., Sayed Saber., and Obsahuje seznam literatury